When using Windows and Linux in a dual boot setup on your PC, you’ll often encounter an issue with your system clock. After booting from Linux into Windows, the time may be off by one hour.
This happens because Linux stores the system time in RTC (Real Time Clock) format, while Windows uses UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
Fortunately, this issue can be easily fixed by adding a registry entry in Windows.
How to Fix It
Open the Windows Registry Editor by pressing [Win] + [R], typing regedit, and pressing Enter. Alternatively, you can search for “regedit” in the Windows Start menu.
Once the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
There, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named: RealTimeIsUniversal and set its value to 1.
You can also download and apply a ready-made .reg file:
RealTimeIsUniversal.reg download
After the next reboot, Windows should store and read the time in RTC format, just like Linux.
Alternative via Command Line
Instead of manually navigating the Registry Editor, you can also add the entry using the Windows Command Line (CMD) with the following command:
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation /f /v RealTimeIsUniversal /t REG_DWORD /d 1
