[time-nuts] Setting Windows XP clock.

[Chris Albertson]

I just checked.  I have an actually running XP system that runs in a
VMWare virtual environment on my iMac.  Here is what I see
1) It is set to use an NTP server called  "time.windows.com" to set the clock.
2) It is using SNTP not NTP to set the clock
3) The above is working as well as it has ever worked.  Nothing has
changed at Microsoft's end.

It is easy to change the time server:
1) double click the clock in the system tray, this launches a dialog box
2) select "internet time" tab and see the pull down for selecting servers
3) I changed my XP system to use "0.north-america.pool.ntp.org"
3) click "update now" to test it.
4) click "apply" and close the dialog box

The step "update now" will verify if the time is being set correctly.

If you care a lot about milliseconds you can replace Microsoft's SNTP
with the reference version of NTP.  But for most people "within a few
seconds" is good enough.  SNTP allows the clock to drift between
periodic updates.  My copy of XP updates the clock very infrequently
so it drifts many seconds.


On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 2:37 AM, Esa Heikkinen <tn1ajb at nic.fi> wrote:
>
>
> At first, Windows XP supports SNTP protocol (so it can be synchronized with NTP server, but not with "millisecond" grade accuracy) and it uses time.windows.com as default server. Maybe Microsoft is closed that server or something, if it doesn't work anymore. However it's easy to change the NTP server, like Ed Palmer alrady described.--


I think all you need to do is double click on the clock icon

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California