Date and time wrong, or keep resetting

A wrong clock is more than an annoyance: secure websites, email and Windows Update all refuse to work when the date is far out.

What you see"Your clock is ahead / behind" in the browser; wrong time in the taskbar

Why it matters

Secure connections check the date on a website's security certificate. If your computer thinks it is another year, every secure site appears invalid, and browsers show "Your clock is behind" or "Your connection is not private". Windows Update, the Microsoft Store, email and sign-ins fail for the same reason.

Fix it in Settings

1. Right-click the clock on the taskbar › Adjust date and time (or Settings › Time & language › Date & time).
2. Time zone: check it first. For India choose (UTC+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi. A wrong time zone is the usual reason for a clock that is exactly a few hours out. Turn "Set time zone automatically" off if it keeps choosing wrongly.
3. Turn Set time automatically On.
4. Under Additional settings, click Sync now. The line above shows the time of the last successful sync.

If Sync now fails, check the internet connection, switch off any VPN, and try again.

Set it by hand

When there is no internet: turn "Set time automatically" off, click Change beside "Set the date and time manually", and enter the date and time. Turn automatic back on later.

If sync keeps failing

1. Restart the time service. Windows key + R › services.msc › Windows Time › set Startup type to Automatic › Start (or Restart).
2. Re-register and sync by command. In Terminal (Admin), one line at a time:

net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
net start w32time
w32tm /resync

1. Change the time server. Control Panel › Date and Time › Internet Time tab › Change settings › choose time.windows.com or time.nist.gov › Update now.
2. On an office or college computer joined to a domain, the time comes from the organisation's server; tell the IT staff.

The clock resets every time the computer is switched off

The clock is kept running by a small coin-shaped battery (type CR2032 in most computers) on the motherboard. When it runs flat, usually after five years or more, the computer forgets the date and its BIOS settings whenever mains power is removed. Signs:

• the date goes back to an old year after the PC has been unplugged;
• a message at start-up such as "CMOS checksum error", "Time and date not set" or "Press F1 to continue";
• BIOS settings such as boot order are lost. See boot device not found.

Replacing the battery on a desktop takes a minute: switch off and unplug, open the side, note which way up the old one sits, release the clip and fit a new CR2032. On laptops it is often under the base cover with a small plug; a service centre does it cheaply. Afterwards, set the date and time in the BIOS or in Windows.

The clock is out by a fixed number of hours

• Wrong time zone: step 2 above.
• A second operating system (Linux) on the same computer: Linux stores the clock in universal time and Windows in local time, so each "corrects" the other. Set Linux to use local time for the hardware clock.
• Daylight saving: India has none. If the zone is right, "Adjust for daylight saving time automatically" has no effect; it matters only for zones that use it.

The clock drifts by minutes

Sync it (Sync now). If it drifts again within days, the time service is not running (step 1), or a "time changer" trick used by some software trials has interfered. A full malware scan is sensible if the clock changes by itself to a strange date.

For Windows 11 and Windows 10. Written in November 2026. Menus move between updates; use the search box in Settings if a name differs. Back up important files before any step that resets, repairs a disk or opens the computer. This is an independent guide, not connected with Microsoft.