Utilities Keep Your PC From Losing Time

Punctuality is often a virtue, especially on New Year's Eve, when you don't want to miss the countdown. But if you depend on your PC for an accurate count, you may miss the beat.

That's because the average computer's clock is powered by a 25-cent crystal that is less accurate than a typical quartz wristwatch. Your system can lose or gain several minutes per day.

Being on time doesn't just matter for bosses and New Year's Eve parties. Keeping your PC on correct system time is more important than you might assume.

Accurate system time is important to ensure data files and e-mail get the correct time stamps. It is particularly important if you synchronize data files, because time stamps often determine which file is more recent. Incorrect time can also make e-mail look older (or newer) than it actually is, a trick used by many e-mail spammers who deliberately change their system time.

The good news for people with a penchant for promptness is that many software applications are available to synchronize your PC's clock with the extremely accurate atomic clock maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The atomic clock, now available online, is referenced daily by millions, from the military to stock market traders and researchers.

Why Is My PC Late?

Despite your PC's high price and fancy technology, its internal clock isn't reliable. In fact, PCs have two clocks: a software clock powered by Windows that runs when your PC is on, and a battery-powered hardware clock embedded on your PC's motherboard that tracks time when your PC is off. However, both are flawed.

Windows' software clock can lose up to a minute each hour, especially when resource-hungry programs dominate the CPU, says Bryan Starbuck, a Microsoft software developer. Older PCs running lots of power-hungry software are particularly susceptible to time drift, as are notebooks. The longer your PC remains on between restarts, the likelier its clock is skewed.

The good news is that each time Windows restarts, the time resets to your PC's BIOS, which gets the time from your PC's hardware clock.

The bad news is that hardware clocks keep time using quartz crystals common to wristwatches. Swings in temperature that occur when you turn your PC on and off can slightly distort the quartz timing device. This can cause it to lose or gain seconds with each reboot. Over time, those seconds add up, says Skip Singer, president of Beagle Software, which makes the time utility ClockWatch.

Sync With Experts

Because neither the software nor hardware clock in a PC is perfect, other options are available for users who want to stay timely.

A feature in Windows XP lets you synchronize your PC with systems on the Internet called time servers. As a default, the Win XP Internet Time utility syncs with one of Microsoft's own two time servers. However, those have been revealed as sometimes unreliable, so you may want to point your Internet Time utility to another server on the Net, perhaps even the atomic clock. Microsoft provides a menu selection, and others are available from Network Time Protocol.

To adjust the Win XP Internet Time utility, right-click the time display on the taskbar, choose Adjust Date/Time, click the Internet Time tab, and check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server. To redirect Windows XP to sync directly with the NIST server, choose the alternate server time.nist.gov from the drop-down list. Then click Update Now, and Windows will synchronize your PC's clock.

If left unattended, Windows XP will synchronize with the time server automatically on a weekly basis. If you're comfortable tweaking your registry files, you can follow Microsoft's directions to change the frequency of synchronization.

Time-Saving Utilities

Earlier versions of Windows lack the easy time-synchronization interface provided in Windows XP. However, a number of software utilities, both free and fee, are available to synchronize your PC with NIST's atomic clock every time you boot up or log on.

Free offerings aren't always as user-friendly as the fee versions, but among the options are Softnik Technologies' Time Synchronizer or Isbister's Atomic Clock Sync software. You can also download a free version of Rocket Software's Rocket Time.

Naturally, paid products do more than simply keep accurate time. Among them are Beagle Software's $19.95 ClockWatch and a $19 shareware program from Dillobits Software, YATS32, a 1.55MB download. Both offer more clock-synchronization options than you'll probably ever need, including giving you control over when and where you set your clock. YATS32 also monitors your computer's clock and tells you just how far it drifts each day.

As for working on your own punctuality habits, you are on your own.