Date Separator in Excel

Excel recognizes a number as a date by its date format, which uses a slash (/) as a separator, for example, 1/26/2008 is recognized as a date by Excel. Can anyone tell me how to set my PC to accept the full stop as the separator? The context that this is in is only really for Excel e.g. to type in today’s date I used to enter 26.3.8 and it would auto correct it to 26.03.8.
This was previously changed through the ‘Regional Settings’ option but the option is no longer there...

Those parameters can be changed in the control panel.

Here are the steps

Start
Control Panel
Regional and Language Options
Under the format tab, Hit the customize this format... button
Under the Date tab you can change the short date format. Your options are either a / or a - to be used as a separator
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To change the default setting for the date format:

1. From the Windows Start menu, select Settings, Control Panel, and then Regional and Language Options.
2. In Regional Options, select Customize.
3. Select the Date tab, and in the Date separator dropdown list, change the slash (/) to a dot (.).
4. Click Apply and then click OK.