How to synchronize the time with Windows Time service in Windows

Recently discovered that some servers were not reporting the correct time. I originally decided to use a freeware utility called tSync, an Internet and network time synchronization utility. While this little utility works great, I wanted something a little cleaner. Microsoft offers a couple of ways to resync the times.

How to synchronize the time on a member computer in an Active Directory domain

  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
  2. Type w32tm /resync, and then press ENTER.

How to synchronize an internal time server with an external source

  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
  2. Type the following line, where peerlist is a space-separated list of Domain Name System (DNS) names or IP addresses of the appropriate time sources, and then press ENTER:
    w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:peerlist
  3. Type w32tm /config /update, and then press ENTER.

Alternatively, use regedit to change the time servers

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers. Add a new “String Value” and rename it to “3”. Change its value to another time server. If you are at work behind a firewall, you’ll have to use a local server within your intranet. Then open Date and Time Properties and click the Internet Time tab. Select your new server from the Server drop down list and Update Now.

Sources
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307897
http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=17&eventno=1748&source=W32Time&phase=1