Windows 7 - display date using small icons

"If you reduce the DPI settings below 100% (96 DPI) to 80 or 90% you should see time AND date in the task bar with 'small icons'. But since the folks at Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have set the minimum limit to 100% you will have to edit the registry for that:

If you want to use DPI settings below 96 (100%), start the Registry Editor (backup your registry first) and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Software\Fonts

LogPixels value is 96 decimal.

For 90 percent font size, set to 86 decimal.

For 80 percent font size, set to 76 decimal.

Close REGEDIT and reboot the computer.

If some text appears too small or blurry, try a different value or return to 96 DPI.

Source: Vista less than 96 DPI by registry change (works for Windows 7)

Voilá! Time AND date with small icons in the task bar (with 90% DPI settings)."

You can, but you either have to unlock the task bar and enlarge it to be twice as tall; or you can move it to one of the side edges of the monitor. Unfortunatly, both of those options make the bar bigger than just using Large Icons.

"There is a one trick. Just found it today myself.

Right-click on Taskbar and select ""Toolbars -> New toolbar..."".
Select any EMPTY folder
It'll immediately add Quick Launch toolbar to Taskbar.
Make sure the Taskbar is unlocked (uncheck ""Lock the taskbar"" option from right click menu)
You'll see a placeholder to drag the Quick Launch toolbar.
Increase the icon size: right-click on the toolbar placeholder and enable ""View -> Large Icons"" option.
Uncheck ""Show text"" and ""Show title"" options
Lock the taskbak.

Done! :)"

"If you are looking today to download T-Clock 2010 (build 95) which has now disappeared, there is still one website that preserves it, at:

THE EXTREMELY UNOFFICIAL WEB PAGE FOR Stoic Joker's T-Clock.

This extremely temporary web page from 2009 is still there and waiting.

The only other solution I can see would be to use one of the Windows themes found on devianART, for example, Shine 2.0 by zainadeel, or use a utility such as Ave's Windows7 Style Builder (US$22.50)
to create your own theme."