How can I change the date format in Quicken for Windows?

WmF

I used Google to search before creating a forum ID. I found this question has been asked several times previously. All of those questions (that I looked at) have been closed, so I'm making a new question.
The answer in each of the early questions was that Quicken follows the Windows Short Date, and to adjust it in the Control Panel / Preferences.

This is not true, at least in my case.

My windows 10 short date format:
ddd dd-MMM-yy

What I see in Quicken
ddMMMyy

(E.g., 10Dec22) I find this to be ugly and difficult to read at a glance.

NOTE: I intentionally set the short date to this format to force a particular format in the Windows task bar clock:
My clock display is on two lines:
Short time:
Short date:

E.g.,
8:06 PM
Sat 10-Dec-22

(Current Quicken Version is R45.13, Build 17.1.4.13, on Windows 10 Enterprise)

General Comment: After 35 years working for several Enterprise Software vendors (on-site consultant, QA, L3 support, and documentation (now retired), we would have been 'beaten with a wet noodle' for that sort of response - that is, not being able to modify the display format to any standard notation the customer required. It's simply unacceptable in a mature product.

Rocket J Squirrel

Confirmed. I can reproduce your problem. I find it odd, because QWin usually obeys the short date format. It just doesn't like yours.

I understand you'd like to see the day of the week in your task bar. I often forget what day it is. My workaround is to hover over the date display and then it shows the long format date.

You can try Help > Report a problem and attach one or more screen shots showing the intended and actual date formats.

Rocket J Squirrel

Confirmed. I can reproduce your problem. I find it odd, because QWin usually obeys the short date format. It just doesn't like yours.

I understand you'd like to see the day of the week in your task bar. I often forget what day it is. My workaround is to hover over the date display and then it shows the long format date.

You can try Help > Report a problem and attach one or more screen shots showing the intended and actual date formats.

WmF

thanks for testing

WmF

I tested again, modifying my system 'Short date', and the Quicken format is now OK. I'm OK without the day being displayed, though it is a bug that should be addressed eventually.

I'd set this in the first place when trying to force the taskbar time and date format of my extended monitors to match that of my primary monitor. I'd noticed that my main monitor had the time and date on 2 lines, and I was trying to configure my system so my extended monitors did the same. I had neglected to set the Windows Short date back to the prior setting after I succeeded in updating the time and date formats for my extended monitors.

(I use Display Fusion to manage my monitors - I find it to be far superior to the built-in windows multi-monitor handling). Anyway, I eventually found a combination of Display Fusion advanced options that cause my 2nd monitor to display on 2 lines, including the seconds with the time. For example:
10:35:21 PM
Sat 12 10 2022
I'm OK with keeping this on my extended monitors, even if it's not available on the Windows task bar.

(A curiosity that I noticed while testing just now - If I set the Control Panel | Region | Short Time to "h:mm:ss tt" then the example on that screen shows the seconds. However, the seconds are not displayed in the taskbar clock. The config panel does state that the 's' notation is only valid for 'long time'. It seems to be a minor Windows bug that the Customize Format configuration Example honors the setting while the actual taskbar clock does not.)

UKR

For best results in Quicken and ease of entering dates into Quicken transactions using the keyboard I recommend you use the standard American date format of mm/dd/yyyy.