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How to check - and fix - your date and time on your Windows PC?Dear Dave, I was reading your article Security certificate expired problems? Maybe it's your PC's date and time. and I think that might be my problem. But here's my question: Could you please tell me how to find the date and time and change it? You're right, by George, when I wrote that previous article I neglected to explain how to change your date/time settings on your PC. Fortunately, it's pretty easy, whether you're running Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista. Let me start with the former so you can see, and then we'll find that Vista has a very, very similar approach. The good news up front, however, is that if you're reading this article, you're able to go online, which means you can query an Internet time server and set your clock quite precisely to the current date and time, even more accurately than any of the clocks in your house. Let's start with what you're already familiar with: the clock on the lower right corner of your screen: Now just double-click the time, and you'll get the Date and Time Properties window: ![]() First off, you might just glance at that to see if it's wildly off or if it is indeed the correct date and time. Either way, let's make sure you're also using the Internet to keep things up-to-date. You can do so by clicking on the "Internet Time" tab: ![]() At this point, you can sync with either time.windows.com (run by Microsoft) or time.nist.gov (run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a U.S. Government agency). I prefer the latter, actually. Click on "Update Now" and: Hopefully a second or two later you'll see a success message and, you guessed it, your computer will now be exactly on time. Running Vista? It's even a bit easier. Simply click on the clock on the lower right once and you'll see: ![]() Now click on "Change date and time settings..." and you'll have the same basic properties window, it's just a lot prettier: ![]() To change the Internet time server, you'll need to click on "Change Settings", but otherwise, it's all functionally identical.
Categorized:
Windows PC Help
(Article 8642,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: date, internet time, security certificates, time, vista, windows vista, windows xp, winxp Previous: How do I analyze word use in a document or book? Next: Help! What should my job title be? Subscribe!
Hi Dave i changed the time on my pc, but the next day its off again,so now what Posted by: trisha at December 19, 2008 4:45 AMHi Dave I have a Toshiba laptop with Vista Home Premium. The date and time will not stay fixed; it always reverts to Aug. 21, 2007. I did do the steps outlined above (several times over the course of a couple weeks). Any other suggestions? Posted by: Anna at September 6, 2009 7:23 PMAnna, just about every computer uses a small watch battery on the circuit board to keep track of the date and time when the computer is otherwise powered off. If that battery gets low, you can find that each and every time you reboot it's reset the time. Not exactly sure if that's what you're talking about but you might check with Toshiba to see if that's a possible problem with your laptop, and if so, what they recommend as a solution. Good luck. Posted by: Dave Taylor at September 6, 2009 8:15 PMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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