How to make Windows store time in UTC
Posted September 11, 2021 by ‐ 1 min read
If you are dual-booting Windows 10 or 11 and Linux or another operating system that uses UTC to store the system time, you notice that the time is wrong when switching the operating systems.
The preferred method to solve the issue is to set Windows to store the time in UTC instead of forcing the other OS to store the time in local time.
To change the setting on Windows, open the Command Prompt or Windows Terminal with Admin privileges and execute the command below:
Windows 32 Bits
Reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation /v RealTimeIsUniversal /t REG_DWORD /d 1
Windows 64 Bits
Reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation /v RealTimeIsUniversal /t REG_QWORD /d 1
It will create a new entry in the Windows registry that will make the operationg system store the time in UTC.
After you execute the command, you need to reboot and set the clock to the correct time.