How to hide clock in Windows

I try to keep my Windows desktop as minimal as possible. One of the desktop elements I find unnecessary is the Clock which shows the time and date in the Notification area of the Taskbar. I check the time or date a few times in a day, but the clock sits in the Taskbar all day occupying a piece of the desktop and also a slice of my attention.

Unlike normal icons in the Notification area, the Clock cannot be hidden so that it is still there, and can be seen by clicking to see the complete Notification area. The Clock is a System Icon that can be either on or completely hidden.

Windows 10

Right-click on the Clock and choose Taskbar Settings. Scroll down to the Notification Area section and click on Turn system icons on or off. In the new dialog, disable the Clock.

Windows 7

To hide the Clock, right-click on the Clock and choose Properties. This displays the Turn system icons on or off dialog. Choose Clock, choose Off and press OK. The clock is now gone from the Taskbar.

Check date/time in a pinch

You will need to check the time or date sometimes during the day. You can do that by invoking the Date and Time properties dialog. The most intuitive way to invoke it is to press the Win key and type Date, choose Date and Time and press Enter.

Another alternative is to create a shortcut for the old Windows Date/Time dialog and assign it a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl + Alt + D. The command to invoke this dialog is:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL timedate.cpl

So I can summon the date/time in a flash and then I can dismiss the dialog by pressing Esc. I find this quite convenient.

The only limitation of hiding the Clock is that the calendar cannot be seen. I wish there was a shortcut to invoke that too.