If you use Linux and Windows on the same computer, even if the Windows installation is on a To Go drive, you are probably suffering from the problem of timeWhat problem am I referring to? The one that causes us to see that the time is not the same when we log into Windows after using Linux. At least in my case it is delayed by two hours. What is happening? How do I fix it?
There are several ways to do it, but just an explanation. A while ago we publish how to fix it from Linux, but after thinking about it I think it's not the best way and here I'll explain why. To understand it you have to know what UTC and RTC are, two different bases for knowing the time, one used by Linux and the other by Windows. And that's the problem, that everyone thinks they should set the time facing in one direction.
UTC and RTC
In the linked article we explain how to change the Linux time to fix the time problem. In it, what is done is to tell the computer to look at the real clock, and that is what it means RTC (Real Time Clock). All computers have an internal clock, and Windows uses it to set the time. The problem is that this is configured from the BIOS, and Windows often gets confused if the time is not correct, in our time zone.
On the other hand, Linux looks at the UTC, which stands for Coordinated Universal Time. What Linux does is look at the internal clock, take it as the universal time, look at the time zone that we have configured on our computer and set the correct time. Without a doubt, or I don't have them right now, this is the best. We can go to another country, change the time zone and, since our computer clock uses UTC, the time will be correct.
So what we're going to explain here is how to do that Windows also uses UTC to fix the time issue. If you want to make Linux use RTC, that is explained in the related article.
Make Windows use UTC to set the time
The steps to follow would be these:
- First of all, you need to go to the BIOS of your computer and set the time to match UTC. Coordinated Universal Time is in this linkHow to enter the BIOS, access the time section and modify it depends on each computer. Entering the BIOS is usually done by pressing F2, Del or a similar key when starting the operating system.
- With the correct time, we start Windows.
- We open the terminal or command prompt as administrator, for which we simply have to search for the application in the start menu, right-click and choose that option.
- When it opens, we copy and paste the following:
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation" /v RealTimeIsUniversal /d 1 /t REG_DWORD /f
- We will see a message informing us that the operation has been completed successfully. Now we only have to go to Settings, to the date and time section, deactivate the automatic time setting and activate it again to restore synchronization.
There is a manual way to do the above, for which you have to open the registry editor with GOAL + R, to write regedit and move to the path that is between quotes in the previous command. Inside, right click, create a new DWORD value (32 bits), name it RealTimeIsUniversal, double click it and set the value 1Both methods do the same thing, but the latter is better if we want to see what we are doing.
Goodbye to your time problems
The real test comes when you reboot the operating system. Or rather, you go to Linux and see that it's fine, and then you go into Windows and see that it's fine too. On second thought, Linux does it better, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for Microsoft to give in on this. In any case, with what's explained here, everything is settled.