The built-in clock in the PC's is convenient and, in fact, necessary to keep files and all the PC's processes in proper chronological order. Accurate time keeping is a must in business, but it is also important to individual users to have their documents and communication stamped with the proper date and time. Especially in a corporate environment, it is important that data and file servers keep the correct time.
But the PC clock is a rather inaccurate device and are either too fast or too slow. In "no time at all", the clock will be out of sync to the true time. Left unattended, the clock can be off by several minutes. Setting the PC time manually is easy and we have probably all done this before many times.
There is a better and automatic way to keep the PC clock in sync with the realities of time. Download and use the U.S. Government NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) time sync program at the following URL:
ftp://time-b.nist.gov/pub/daytime/nistime-32.exe
This application is explained in detail in the following document.
http://tf.nist.gov/service/pdf/nts.pdf
Once you have downloaded nistime-32.exe, place this file in the Windows root directory/folder. This can be C:\Windows or C:\Winnt depending on what version Windows you are using.
Now, right-drag the file to the desktop and chose "Create Shortcut(s) Here".
Select the just created shortcut and right-click "Properties". Select the "Shortcut" tab if you are not yet in this tab of the "Shortcut to nistime-32.exe Properties" window:
Depending on the version of Windows, the path stated in the "Target" is either:
C:\WINNT\nistime-32.exe
or
C:\WINDOWS\nistime-32.exe
Change the C:\WINNT or C:\WINDOWS
to %windir% such that the path will now read
%windir%\nistime-32.exe .
Now, at the end of the path, add a space and type:
once quiet
So that the "Target" text box will read:
%windir%\nistime-32.exe once quiet
Now... in the "Start in" text box, delete the full path of the windows root directory and type:
%windir%
Because of the "quiet" parameter, the program should run without opening a window, but just to make sure, we should dropdown the "Run:" option and select "Minimized". Click the "Apply" button to commit the changes. When done, the edited shortcut should look like this:
If all looks okay, you can close the properties window (by clicking on the "OK" button). This shortcut is "generic" in that it will work on any version of Windows regardless of what the actual Windows root folder is named, for as long as you place the nistime-32.exe file in the Windows root folder.
There are two ways to use this shortcut. One is to make it available to the user to click every time he/she wants to set the PC clock to the correct time. The other way is to place this shortcut in the "Startup" folder so that one of the first things the PC will do on every log on is to set the clock to the proper time.
Note that for Windows 95 and ME, there is one "Startup" folder used regardless of which user (account) is logged on, while for NT and later Windows version, a separate "Startup" folder exist for each user/account. So in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 you may need to copy the shortcut into the "Startup" folder of each user/account of that particular PC.
Alternately, you can force all accounts to use the same "Startup" folder (using TweakUI) and place the shortcut you have just created/edited into that one "Starup" folder.
IMPORTANT:
1) This is all based on the assumption that the PC is connected to the Internet.
2) Due to the latency of the Internet (the time it takes for the request to reach the time server, and the time it takes for the reply from the server to reach the PC), the time setting after the automatic adjustment is slightly late by a few seconds. Because of the nature of the Internet (the actual data routing can differ on a case by case basis), there is no accurate way to anticipate and compensate this latency time difference automatically. But for most practical purposes, a few seconds late is a lot better than a few minutes out of sync.
