How to Set Time and Date in Windows 10
How to set or change a computer's date and time
Updated: 10/11/2021 by Computer Hope
This page contains steps on how to change the computer's date and time in the computer's operating system, or in the BIOS settings. It also describes how to change the date and time on a mobile device.
Tip
If you are using Windows on a virtual machine, change the date and time on the host machine, not the virtual machine. The virtual machine gets the current date and time information from the host.
- Setting date and time in BIOS or CMOS setup
- Setting date and time in the operating system
- Windows 10
- Windows 8
- Windows Vista and 7
- Windows 9x, NT, 2000, and XP
- MS-DOS and Windows command line
- Linux
- FreeBSD
- Apple macOS
Setting the date and time in BIOS or CMOS setup
- Open the CMOS setup.
- How to enter the BIOS or CMOS setup.
- In the system setup menu, locate the date and time.
- Using the arrow keys, navigate to the date or time, adjust them to your liking, and then select Save and Exit.
Note
If, after rebooting the computer the date and time have to be set again, your CMOS battery is most likely bad, consider replacing the CMOS battery. See: How to replace the CMOS battery.
Setting date and time in the operating system
To change the system time in your operating system, follow these steps.
Windows 10
Note
Windows 10 automatically adjusts your date and time for you and only allows you to adjust the time if you disable this feature. If the wrong date and time are set, or you need to change the time or time zone, follow the steps below.
- Right-click or tap the date and time in the Windows Notification Area in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Click Adjust date/time.
- Make sure your Time zone is set properly if your computer is displaying the wrong time.
- To manually adjust the time, turn off the Set time automatically option, then click the Change button.
- Change the date or time as desired, then click the Change button.
Tip
There is no ability to add seconds to the time displayed in the Windows Notification Area on the Taskbar. However, if you click the date and time, a pop-up window opens and displays the time with seconds included.
Windows 8
- Click or tap the date and time in the Windows Notification Area in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Select Change date and time settings at the bottom of the window that appears (shown below).
- In the Date and Time window, under the Date and Time tab, click the Change date and time button.
- Make your adjustments and click OK.
- Click OK on the main Date and Time window to save the changes.
Tip
There is no ability to add seconds to the time displayed in the Windows Notification Area on the Taskbar. However, if you click the date and time, a pop-up window opens and displays the time with seconds included.
To change the time zone, follow these steps.
- In the Date and Time window from above, under the Date and Time tab, click the Change time zone button.
- Select the new time zone in the Time zone drop-down field and click OK.
- Click OK on the main Date and Time window to save the time zone change.
Windows 7 and Vista
In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, follow these steps to adjust the date and time.
- Press Windows key+D or navigate to the Windows desktop.
- Click or tap the date and time in the Windows Notification Area in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- Select Change date and time settings in the bottom of the window that appears (shown below).
- In the Date and Time window, under the Date and Time tab, click the Change date and time button.
- Make your adjustments and click OK.
- Click OK on the Date and Time window to save the changes.
Tip
There is no ability to add seconds to the time displayed in the Windows Notification Area on the Taskbar. However, if you click the date and time, a pop-up window opens and displays the time with seconds included.
To change the time zone, follow these steps.
- In the Date and Time window from above, under the Date and Time tab, click the Change time zone button.
- Select the new time zone in the Time zone drop-down field and click OK.
- Click OK on the main Date and Time window to save the time zone change.
Windows XP, 2000, 98, 95, NE, and NT 4
In Windows XP and earlier versions, follow these steps to set the date and time.
- Navigate to the Windows desktop.
- Right-click the time in your Systray, usually located at the bottom-right of your screen.
- Click the Adjust Date/Time menu item.
- This action opens the Date/Time Properties window, where you can adjust the date, time, and time zone.
- Once the proper date and time are set, click Apply, and then Ok.
Tip
You may also double-click the time to open the Date/Time Properties window.
Tip
If you want to change how the computer handles daylight savings, click the Time Zone tab and check or uncheck the Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes option.
- How to view the date in Microsoft Windows.
MS-DOS and Windows command line
Setting the date through MS-DOS or the Windows command line is accomplished via use of the date command. See our date command page for further information.
Setting the time through MS-DOS or the Windows command line is accomplished via use of the time command. See our time command page for further information.
Linux command line
In Linux, use the date command to manually set the system date and time.
date -s "8 MAY 2020 11:36:00"
Or, to synchronize your system clock with a network time server, use ntpdate. For example, on Ubuntu or Debian:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ntpdate
Specify a network time server to the ntpdate command, for example us.pool.ntp.org.
sudo ntpdate us.pool.ntp.org
9 May 15:32:31 ntpdate[11562]: adjust time server 107.21.100.177 offset -0.004751 sec
To keep your system time synchronized regularly, install the ntp system service.
sudo apt install ntp
The service starts immediately, and starts automatically at system boot. To configure the service, edit the file /etc/ntp.conf, then restart the service.
sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf
sudo systemctl restart ntp
To access the hardware clock directly, use the hwclock command.
sudo hwclock --show
FreeBSD
In FreeBSD, ntp can be installed with the pkg package manager.
sudo pkg install ntp
Setting the date and time on the Apple operating system
- Open the Apple Menu and select System Preferences.
- Click Date & Time, and then click Date & Time again.
- In the Date & Time window, set the date, time, time zone.
How to Set Time and Date in Windows 10
Source: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000554.htm