Amazing, right? Although today’s personal computers are enormous in terms of capabilities compared to those of 20 or 30 years ago, there are cases, like the one we will tell you about below, that make us scratch our heads and wonder if everything has been precisely evolution. What happen? That Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 11, is the first in a long time to refusing to show you the seconds of the hour on his Watch native. The reason is unusual and you probably don’t expect it.
Contents
The clock in Windows: a weight problem?
It is likely that you are still one of the millions of users who are still using Windows 10. The clock on this system is almost identical to the one all previous versions have had and is located next to the tray icons on the right side of the taskbar (bottom of the screen).
If you haven’t configured anything additional, it’s likely that this indicator only shows hours and seconds, but if you prefer to keep an eye on the seconds at all times, in Windows 10 is there a solution and, although somewhat uncomfortable, it is possible.
However, everything has changed in Windows 11, in which it is no longer possible – not even with any trick – to be able to show the seconds on the taskbar. Why is this happening? We are in 2022, and showing such a ‘basic’ tool shouldn’t cause any problems, right?
YOU CAN SEE: Windows 10 was going to be the last Microsoft system: what happened?
Clocks and bits don’t always get along
Believe it or not, this topic has been around for decades among Windows users (at least since the desktop and taskbar existed). In the early years of Windows 95, there were already users who preferred to see the full clock with the naked eye, but by then, Microsoft responded that it was necessary to have a minimum of 4 MB of RAM (megs, not gigabytes) in the system.
Of course, we are talking about more than 25 years ago, when having 4MB of RAM could still be considered a luxury. Today, decades later, computer memory often quietly exceeds 8 GB of RAM (2,000 times more). Isn’t it enough to show the clock at all hours?
Is it really troublesome to display the seconds on the tray clock? Photo: Capture
Microsoft’s response
No, it is not. Already in 2003, the renowned Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen (one of the main people responsible for keeping the system backwards compatible) explained that, at least in Windows 95, the reason for not showing the clock was simple: it consumed a lot of RAM.
The biggest challenge of making the clock with seconds standard for everyone is that it implies that all users have their own clock. This affects the operation of the terminal servers, which are responsible for updating it. The result? An intense work of the CPU to keep everything in order. Chen even revealed that this is the reason why the cursors flicker when we write a text.
YOU CAN SEE: Do you need to copy files from an old floppy disk to your laptop or PC? so you can do it
Windows 11: the end of the problem?
While Windows 10 also doesn’t display seconds on your clock by default, until now, making it possible was a matter of running a simple command in the system registry. However, this solution is no longer possible in Windows 11 and many have had to resort to other alternatives, such as third-party apps:
The most curious thing is that current systems such as macOS Y Linux have been able to solve this dilemma for a long time, but in Windows 11 they have chosen to prioritize “performance”. Will it be surpassed in the future?