I run Windows 7 Professional IA-32 with RealTimeIsUniversal=1 on
brolin-V13, my Dell Vostro V13 laptop. This means brolin-V13’s hardware
clock (RTC) runs in UTC, as it should, instead of the local time zone,
as Microsoft still uses for the completely illogical default
configuration. RealTimeIsUniversal=1 is /finally/ fixed and fully
working beginning in Windows Vista SP2 + Windows 7, but there is still a
problem: When RealTimeIsUniversal=0, which is also used when the
RealTimeIsUniversal key does not exist, Windows 7 writes the Windows NT
system time to the hardware clock during the shut down process. When
RealTimeIsUniversal=1, though, the Windows NT system time is never
written to the hardware clock. Consequently, I have to boot Ubuntu from
a USB flash drive (brolin-V13 has no optical disc drive (ODD).), then
use ntpdate-debian + hwclock to synchronise the Linux system clock with
an NTP server on the Internet, then write the
sufficiently-accurate-for-me Linux system time to the hardware clock so
Windows 7 will set the Windows NT system clock from the accurate time in
the hardware clock. After some time (at least 1 week, not sure.),
though, my hardware clock is approximately 2 minutes behind the correct
time from an NTP server, but Windows 7 never writes the Windows NT
system time to the hardware clock when RealTimeIsUniversal=1, so I have
to use my Ubuntu USB flash drive again. I know the proper solution is
to get Microsoft to change Windows 7 so it can write the Windows NT
system time to the hardware clock even when RealTimeIsUniversal=1, but
that has not yet happened. I have at least asked a Microsoft employee
about it, though, so they know users (well, at least 1 user. :)) want
the feature. I can use w32time to force a synchronisation, but then I
have to do that every time I boot Windows 7. brolin-V13 travels with me
between home and work, so it is not always running. Maybe this causes
the hardware clock to fall behind, but I do not think I can prevent
having to shut down and boot brolin-V13 on a daily basis. Since I do
not know if Microsoft will ever enable Windows 7 to write the Windows NT
system time to the hardware clock when RealTimeIsUniversal=1, the next
best solution is probably to write a hwclock.exe application for Windows
NT, but I am hoping someone has already implemented this functionality
in an application such as an NTP client. Googling “hwclock.exe” returns
lots of noise because some malware uses this file name, but I have not
found any real hwclock.exe equivalent to hwclock used on Linux.
So, is there an NTP client or any other application for Windows NT which
can write the Windows NT system time to the hardware clock so I do not
have to write hwclock.exe for Windows NT?
Thanks for reading,
Brolin
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