How to make Win 11 sync time on boot

smoketoxdoc · Jan 25, 2023

On my dual-boot PC's, when I switch from Linux (Ubuntu) to Win 11 or 10, Win always boots up to GMT time instead of US Eastern time, which is the time set in Win. i have to manually Sync now to get the correct time. How do I get the time to sync automatically? Win 10 and 11 are latest upgrades through Insider program.

Thank you,

John

Berton · Jan 25, 2023

There's usually a date and time setting in the BIOS which loads before the Operating System, might check that.

barreleye · Jan 25, 2023

You could adapt the task presented here:

Make Windows synchronize time more often

www.pretentiousname.com

garlin · Jan 26, 2023

Most people are reading this question wrong.
His clock isn't "out of sync", but Linux & Windows disagree on the time zone offset.

UPDATE: Force Windows to write BIOS time using UTC.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
"RealTimeIsUniversal"=qword:00000001

Side effect is your BIOS time isn't displayed as local time, but dual-booting won't cause time problems.

primo · Jun 11, 2023

garlin said:
UPDATE: Force Windows to write BIOS time using UTC.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation] "RealTimeIsUniversal"=qword:00000001

Side effect is your BIOS time isn't displayed as local time, but dual-booting won't cause time problems.

Old thread, apologies. I just wanted to confirm that this solution works perfectly to allow a Windows and Linux dual-boot to agree on the same clock, for anyone else looking for the solution.

ctdogge · Jul 11, 2023

The Reg entry Did the trick - anybody know how to make this setting on TrueNAS (BSD) ?

garlin · Jul 11, 2023

When /etc/wall_cmos_clock is touched, both FreeBSD and default Windows will interpret the BIOS time as local timezone.
So pick one of the two methods, Windows reg or /etc/wall_cmos_clock, but not both.

FreeBSD and Windows show different times

ctdogge · Jul 11, 2023

garlin said:
When /etc/wall_cmos_clock is touched, both FreeBSD and default Windows will interpret the BIOS time as local timezone.
So pick one of the two methods, Windows reg or /etc/wall_cmos_clock, but not both.

FreeBSD and Windows show different times

Thanks, garlin. The freeNAS is a standalone box but I'm hoping this will do the trick. Will fill you in. Thanks a million.

garlin · Jul 12, 2023

lol, I was confused why someone would dual-boot a NAS box

.

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

garlin said:
lol, I was confused why someone would dual-boot a NAS box .

Never underestimate the creative power of silly people....

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

garlin said:
lol, I was confused why someone would dual-boot a NAS box .

It's an odd issue. In FreeNAS I schedule a shutdown at 11pm but for some reason with this BIOS (Gigabyte GA-77N-WiFi) when the TrueNAS syncs it's time it and changes the BIOS clock. I have the BIOS set to turn on the system at 5am. But I am constantly changing it to get to get the turn on time I want. The fine folks at IX Systems do not allow the root user to mess with the boot parameters (or at least I haven't figured out how) so I ntpq - p ; ntpdate -d; ntpd -I 192.168.1.* But it never sticks. I've just been eating the wasted power (10 spinning drives) 'cause of the hassle. I have had a chance to try your fix yet but will let you know for sure. Thanks again....

garlin · Jul 12, 2023

ntpdate is to adjust the clock drift in minutes, seconds; it's not designed to fix timezone errors.
If your BIOS is set to wake up based on local time, then FreeNAS needs to be adjusted to know BIOS clock is the local time already.

# touch /etc/wall_cmos_clock
Reboot

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

garlin said:
ntpdate is to adjust the clock drift in minutes, seconds; it's not designed to fix timezone errors.
If your BIOS is set to wake up based on local time, then FreeNAS needs to be adjusted to know BIOS clock is the local time already.

# touch /etc/wall_cmos_clock
Reboot

Sadly, IX has limited root somehow. Here's what I get (please see attached screen shot)

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

Like I mentioned they have loocked out root after booting. for "certain" tasks...

garlin · Jul 12, 2023

root doesn't need to sudo, you're root.
# ls -l /etc/wall_cmos_clock

The file only has to exist, the OS startup scripts check for it's appearance and take action.

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

garlin said:
root doesn't need to sudo, you're root.
# ls -l /etc/wall_cmos_clock

The file only has to exist, the OS startup scripts check for it's appearance and take action.

?

ctdogge · Jul 12, 2023

Do you need me to create that file ?

garlin · Jul 12, 2023

This point, you're better off reading TrueNAS forums.

TrueNAS implements FreeBSD on a temp filesystem, so /etc/wall_cmos_clock isn't permanent across reboots. If you read the NTP threads, the instructions don't make it clear setting the BIOS clock to UTC as the accepted method. Then you would shift the BIOS's wake up time to compensate for using UTC.

plieschn · Aug 23, 2023

garlin said:
Most people are reading this question wrong.
His clock isn't "out of sync", but Linux & Windows disagree on the time zone offset.

UPDATE: Force Windows to write BIOS time using UTC.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation] "RealTimeIsUniversal"=qword:00000001

Side effect is your BIOS time isn't displayed as local time, but dual-booting won't cause time problems.

Thank you very much, that solved my issue! I did not know that Windows 11 is capable of interpreting the CMOS clock UTC, just the other way around to set Linux on a localized clock setting. But this (changing Win behavior) is the preferrable way in a multiboot scenario I would say. Thank you a lot!