In a move that will terrify clock watchers worldwide, Microsoft has added a new setting to the Windows 11 taskbar.

With the recent rollout of update KB5028185 (thanks, PCWorld), Windows 11 now offers the option to add a seconds display to the taskbar clock.

If you signed up for the Windows Insider Program, you have had access to this taskbar tweak for some time, but it is only recently that this feature has become available to all Windows 11 users.

I write this as someone who finds the taskbar clock too intrusive, and the last thing I want to do is ask Windows to display every second that ticks by throughout the day.

If you are overly time conscious and want to watch the seconds tick by on your best monitor, here are the steps you need to take to get the seconds to appear on the Windows 11 taskbar clock.

From the Windows 11 desktop, follow these steps:

Here you go! You can now see the hours, minutes, and seconds in the Windows 11 taskbar. It's the iconic triple-quadrant clock.

Of course, if you have not downloaded the update KB5028185, you will not see this option in the taskbar menu. If you cannot stand having your on-screen timekeeper limited to mere hours and minutes, obtain the update and follow the instructions above.

Interestingly, the idea of Microsoft adding a seconds display to the OS taskbar clock has been a 20-year-old controversy at the company.

The company toyed with the notion of adding seconds to the on-screen clock as early as 2003, but eventually abandoned it. Why, at a time when PCs were ludicrously poor by today's standards, even using four kilobytes of memory to display 17:34:01 click-over to 17:34:02 was considered a waste of resources.

My main takeaway from all of this? I would never suddenly display seconds on the taskbar, and I am glad that my PC has just a little more power than 4 kilobytes.