Windows never keeps time properly

G9XFTW · January 5, 2023

Ever since Windows Vista. Now I'm running windows 11 and I have to go in to settings every other day to sync the time.
There is no issue with my CMOS, as two of my Ubuntu drives in the system run fine and keep the time without having me to sync them at all on the same system.

How on earth do I fix the time for Windows 11?

Eigenvektor · January 5, 2023

4 minutes ago, G9XFTW said:

How on earth do I fix the time for Windows 11?

Since you mention dual booting… is the time off by a fixed amount of hours?

Windows expects the BIOS clock to be set to local time, while Linux will set it to UTC. Could this be the issue? There's a registry key you can set to make Windows also use UTC for the system clock (the clock on the desktop will still show local time).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_time#UTC_in_Microsoft_Windows

Other than that, make sure automatic time synchronization (NTP) is enabled and a working server is configured for it.

G9XFTW · January 5, 2023

6 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Since you mention dual booting… is the time off by a fixed amount of hours?

Windows expects the BIOS clock to be set to local time, while Linux will set it to UTC. Could this be the issue? There's a registry key you can set to make Windows also use UTC for the system clock (the clock on the desktop will still show local time).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_time#UTC_in_Microsoft_Windows

Other than that, make sure automatic time synchronization (NTP) is enabled and a working server is configured for it.

Ok, so the BIOS time was off. Will see if things work out this time. You were right about UTC and local time.

Eigenvektor · January 5, 2023

Just now, G9XFTW said:

Ok, so the BIOS time was off. Will see if things work out this time. You were right about UTC and local time.

Yeah, both Windows and Linux are essentially fighting to control the clock. Easiest solution is to make Windows also accept UTC using the registry key shown in the Arch Wiki. That's what I've been doing here, works without issues. You'll just need to get used to the fact that the clock in the BIOS might show UTC going forward.