Sync your windows time with an External Time Source

The systems in my development network were always behind by 5 minutes.  I corrected the time on my domain server and my workstation every once in a while, but it would eventually go back to being a few minutes late.

I didn't mind much when I didn't have meetings to go to, but every once in a while, I do have meetings.

I always found myself scrambling even more because my inaccurate system time.

So, I found this article on configuring your windows time service.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/configuring-windows-time-service.html

The above article is the best article I found regarding syncing windows time.

Summarily, it states that the windows time service was set up to ensure your systems have synchronized times.

Time can be synched with an internal hardware clock or external source.

In a domain environment, time is synched with domain controllers in the domain and subdomains. 

In a standalone environment, with Windows 7, you can configure your system to synchronize with a time server via the GUI Date and Time settings.

By default, systems are configured to use their internal clock.   In this setting, windows time services will ensure you have the same relative time, but not necessarily accurate actual time.


Synching to an External Time Source

1) Tell the domain controller to use an NTP server:
Using Regedit, set

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type

REG_SZ value from NT5DS to NTP.

2)  Set the server as a reliable time server:
Using regedit, set
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\AnnounceFlags

REG_DWORD value from 10 to 5 here.

3) Set the NtpServer you want to use here.  The default is time.windows.com,0x1.   It does work, so I did not bother changing it.   Note:  if you use a DNS name, then you add ",0x1" to the DNS name to indicate its a DNS name and not an IP:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\NtpServer
The referenced article suggests using the time services from the United States Naval Observatory tock.usno.navy.mil,0x1.

4) Restart the Windows Time Service:
net stop w32time
net start w32time
5) To tell your systems to sync immediately::
w32tm /resync /rediscover
Tip
There are additional registry settings you can configure to ensure external time synchronization operates effectively, see this article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for details.

SOURCE:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/configuring-windows-time-service.html

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