Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 37 down vote favorite
22

Since I live in Germany, my timezone is GMT+1 (or GMT+2 in the summertime period). Previous Windows versions were not able to have the hardware clock set to UTC, and the Windows time to the local time. That was / is a big mess, since almoust every other OS is using UTC preferedly.

Is this fixed in Windows 7 and is it now possible to use UTC in the BIOS and local time in Windows?

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 33 down vote accepted

Have a look here:

Save the following lines as utc.reg, and then run it to import this registry tweak. It allows you to set the hardware clock in your PC’s BIOS to UTC time. This is handy for boot dual-booting Mac, or Linux, when those operating systems are set to read the BIOS clock as UTC time, instead of Windows’ preferred Local Time (e.g., PST, PDT, MST, MDT, CST, CDT, EST, EDT, or the standard “GMT-” and “GMT+”)

Here is the code to save as utc.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
“RealTimeIsUniversal”=dword:00000001

The equivalent answer can also be found here.

share|improve this answer
2  
it would be nice to include the relevant information in your answer, in case the pages you cite disappear. – Gilles Sep 7 '10 at 20:06
8  
Make sure you read the notes at cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html - the RealTime option still has several glitches. – grawity Sep 7 '10 at 20:27
@Sathya Thank you sathya for editing , from next time I will make sure paste the information instead of links – subanki Sep 8 '10 at 22:13
2  
Ok, i knew this registry hack from former Windows versions and i thought in 2010 perhaps they've got managed to get such easy things as UTC support officially working. Unfortunately it doesn't seem so. – mru Sep 19 '10 at 15:26
2  
@PratyushNalam Yes, it works with Windows 8. I just set it up. – Michael Hampton Nov 29 '12 at 17:46
show 1 more comment

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.