Windows 10 time setting issues

Topic

When I travel outside the US, I have constant issues with the Windows time setting. I go to All Settings>Time & Language>Date & Time and turn off Set Time Automatically and Set Time Zone Automatically. Should I do that or will Windows somehow pick up the correct local date & time from somewhere? Then I click the box for Set Date & Time Manually. I select the proper time zone for my location and leave settings. Computer shows correct time. However, when I next start the PC, the time and date have randomly changed to incorrect data. Do I need to click Sync Now under Synchronize your clock after the manual setting process? If I do that, should the manually-set date and time remain as set until I manually change them or go back to Set Time and Time Zone Automatically?

Thanks!

Replies

I had a huge amount of help from Woody and Users on a time sync issue at my post https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/where-to-find-6-digit-authenticator-code/

post 2692950. Maybe this will help you.

However, beyond that I was doing more research later on and found out (I hope this is correct) there is something called Unix time  and something called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). From Google searches apparently if your computer is synced to Unix (which is derived from UTC) it does not matter where you are as your time is adjusted from UTC.

UTC is the world time and UNIX is a time (digit) from a beginning time somewhere around the 1970’s, so if your device is synced with these you should work wherever you are. One such sync is what mine is (after my old post above) , “time.nist.gov”.

I hope this helps.

PS, to change time source – Control Panel/ Clock and Region/ Date and Time/ column Internet Time/ Change settings box at bottom/ drop down selection box

J9438 wrote:

if your computer is synced to Unix (which is derived from UTC) it does not matter where you are as your time is adjusted from UTC

UTC = Unix time = Windows time
They all refer to Greenwich Mean Time and are the basis for all computer timing.
Your computer then takes time zone information based on your location and adjusts the time you see. It still stores / uses UTC internally (there are some exceptions, TL;DR)

If you set your computer to automatically adjust to the local time, it finds the time zone from the local internet connection and uses that to set the time you see. No internet connection, no time zone change.

If the time and date are reset randomly, you probably have a faulty RTC (assuming it’s a laptop). If it’s a desktop you probably have a flat RTC/BIOS battery.

cheers, Paul

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J9438

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)*, which is based on GMT, is used for all computer/communications systems and normally expressed as either Unix or Epoch time which is the number of micro/nano seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970.

Because current Unix/Epoch time is a signed 32 bit integer, it has a problem very similar to the old Y2K bug called the Year 2038 problem.

Basically what’ll happen is, 1 sec after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038, the value will increase to value larger than 32 bits and which will cause havoc if systems not designed to handle 64 bit time values try to interpret what time it is.

The fix, which is being slowly rolled out, is to increase the time value to 64 bits (which allows dates up to approximately 292 billion years) but the catch is, a LOT of current software can’t handle 64 bit date values without being completely rewritten. And, just like Y2K, a LOT of the owners/users of that software are just “assuming” it’ll no longer be in use come 2038!

Hey, what could go wrong? Right?

*It’s one of those weird acronym things like how everyone else calls it NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) but the French insist it’s OTAN (l’Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord).

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J9438

Paul T wrote:

UTC = Unix time = Windows time

I know nothing about world time and not trying to be picky but from what I was able to pick up from numerous Google searches and to add to the Woody knowledge base:

UTC is the actual world time adjusted to our time zones so it can be used such that different applications in different parts of the world can have a specific time.

UNIX is a number of nanoseconds from Jan 1, 1970. As I understand it, that is not the time of day as we see it but instead a constant number between 1/1/1970 and right now that computer systems can use for time comparisons instead of converting UTC – in other words easier to program and in effect is comparing current world time is a different manner.

I have no idea which one is used by “internet time”. I would guess UTC for out of network apps while UNIX might be better for in house apps where the actual time is not important, just the time difference.

All of this is my interpretation so if you need specifics contact your local programmer!

Sorry, a better answer popped up while I was doing this so I will try to delete mine.

Could not find a way to delete. Oh, well.

Nope, UTC is the time. Everything is calculated relative to UTC.

We need a number for calculation, so we use seconds.
Then we need to define zero, so we use 1 Jan 1970.

cheers, Paul

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J9438

Thanks to all who have responded to my post. However, it seems that I’ve received WAY MORE information than I was seeking or can  understand. When I travel, I frequently have no or limited Internet access. Therefore, automatic time setting isn’t an option. All I was trying to determine is how to set the local time manually AND have that time held and displayed until I either change it manually or revert to automatic when reliable Internet is available.

Is this possible and can anyone advise how to do it?

 

Don E.

 

 

Time values in Windows can be represented in different ways. As discussed earlier, time is often represented as the number of seconds that have passed since midnight January 1, 1970, coordinated universal time (UTC). Another commonly encountered way of representing time in Windows is a 64-bit value containing the number of 100 nanosecond intervals that have passed since midnight January 1, 1601, coordinated universal time (UTC).

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J9438

doneager wrote:

Computer shows correct time. However, when I next start the PC, the time and date have randomly changed to incorrect data.

We need to know what incorrect data is.
Has the time zone changed?
Has the time changed?
Both?

cheers, Paul

The time and sometimes the date as well (depending on the time) displayed at the bottom right of the screen change. I do not check the zone, since I had turned off automatic changes to that.

 

Don E.

doneager wrote:

how to set the local time manually AND have that time held and displayed until I either change it manually

While most people WANT the time to be set automatically it seems you have the unusual case of NOT wanting the time set automatically.

So if it were me (and I am certainly no expert on this) I would do BOTH of the following:

Turn off auto set in Windows settings (I gave the link to that above)

And Turn off Sync in Control Panel internet time (I gave the link to that above)

One never knows how those 2 options work together!!

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your response. However, I found a few issues with it and still have a couple of remaining questions on this process.

Issues:

1. In your original post from 9/12, the path contained in your PS is not what I see on my PC. In Control Panel, there is no selection for “Clock and Region.” Mine shows a direct selection to “Date and Time.”

2. Also, I see no “column Internet Time” there. Clicking on Date and Time results in a screen labelled “Internet Time Settings” with a tab for “Internet Time Settings.”

Additional Questions:

1. What should I do with the Date & Time setting for Set time zone automatically?
2. When, if ever, should I click the Synchronize your clock button?
3. On the Internet time settings>Configure Internet time settings server selection, I have two choices: time.windows.com and time.nist.gov. When I’m using automatic time, it is currently set for the former. Which is preferable and why?

Thanks,

D. Eager

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J9438

doneager wrote:

1. In your original post from 9/12, the path contained in your PS is not what I see on my PC. In Control Panel, there is no selection for “Clock and Region.” Mine shows a direct selection to “Date and Time.”

Hi Don! The reason for that difference is because each one of you has a different “View by:” setting for Control Panel.

When it’s set to view by either large or small icons, you get exactly what you see on yours, an icon for Date and Time.

When it’s set to view by category, you get exactly what J9438 describes in the post of 9/12 that you refer to.

Look in the upper right corner of the Control Panel window and you see the choice for “View by:”, just under the search box.

I hope this helps a bit.

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doneager, J9438

Thanks for the clarification on what is shown on Control Panel. I never knew there was an option for that. After looking at the alternative, I’ll be sticking with the View: Large Icons , which I much prefer.

doneager wrote:

direct selection to “Date and Time.”

That’s good – click that.

doneager wrote:

tab for “Internet Time Settings.”

That’s good – click that

doneager wrote:

What should I do with the Date & Time setting for Set time zone automatically?

Strange but mine is grayed out whether I have time auto or not. Perhaps because I have the other option to pick up time from the nist.gov site. As I said strange how these 2 options interact.

doneager wrote:

When, if ever, should I click the Synchronize your clock button?

If on the Date and Time option you would click that if for some reason your time was not correct and you wanted to get it in sync. If you are on the Internet time panel then you are telling the system to go ahead and use the internet time server you selected always for your PC time.

doneager wrote:

I have two choices: time.windows.com and time.nist.gov.

When I was having my time issues on post 2692950 the Woody staff and other users recommended time.nist.gov which I assume is a government standard based on universal time. This has worked for me. But back to your original issue of NOT wanting the time auto set because of a temporary locality, you would only use this once you got back to a normal situation where you want the time auto set.

J9438 wrote:

other users recommended time.nist.gov which I assume is a government standard based on universal time.

The time.nist.gov time servers are all maintained by the US NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) agency and generate the UTC code used by all US government agencies, as well as most state, county and local government agencies, to keep their systems in sync across the internet.

A lot of private US agencies and companies also use it.

FYI, time.nist.gov actually resolves to 26 different NIST time server addresses in a round-robin sequence to equalize the load across all of them (see NIST Internet Time Servers for the complete list.)

The UTC code provided by those servers is based on NIST’s Cesium Fountain Atomic Clocks located in Boulder, Colorado.

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doneager, J9438

I’ll be switching the time source to NIST today.

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J9438

If, after fixing your immediate problem, you should go back and review:

Paul T at post 2693267

Noads at post 2695495 and 2694699

PKCano at post 2695313

They all spent a LOT of time helping me with my time issue at post 2692950. They really gave me a much better understanding of that little time box on your PC and how it is derived. Many, many thanks to them and others that offer help with this complex system!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped m address this issue. When I’m in a location that has reliable Internet service, I’ll be using the NIST time source and have the automatic settings for time and time zone selected. Next time I’m in a location without reliable Internet service, I’ll first leave the time settings alone and see what happens. If automatic doesn’t seem to work, I’ll try again to disable the automatic settings and manually select the time zone where I’m located and see if the setting is retained.

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J9438