This article describes how to determine the date format that is displayed to users when they log on to a computer.

A user can configure the date format using the Regional Settings tool in Control Panel.

You can apply a policy to a computer to control the date format that is displayed to the user (for example, MM/dd/yy or MM/dd/yyyy). The following registry key controls the date format: The following example shows the different values you can use for this registry key, and how the date is displayed for a specified value:

Value          Result
MM/dd/yy       03/08/98
M/d/yy         3/8/98
M/d/yyyy       3/8/1998
MM/dd/yyyy     03/08/1998
yy/MM/dd       98/03/08
dd-MMM-yy      03-Mar-98
				

Through the use of policies in Windows NT 4.0, you can write a custom .adm file and incorporate it into the policy file. For additional information about policy files and custom .adm templates, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: You can cut and paste the following information into a file and save it as a custom .adm file. After the .adm file is incorporated into the policy, you can configure the date format for users.

----------Start of Date Format ADM----------
CLASS USER

CATEGORY !!DATE
	KEYNAME "Control Panel\International"
	
	POLICY !!ShortDateFormat
		PART !!DateFormatDesc         EDITTEXT REQUIRED
		VALUENAME sShortDate
		END PART
	END POLICY
END CATEGORY	; Date


[strings]
Date="Date"
ShortDateFormat="Short Date Format"
DateFormatDesc="Please enter the date mask. For example MM/dd/yyyy"
----------End of Date Format ADM----------