Internet Time tab has disappeared from the Date and Time applet of the Control Panel

windows-7 date-time

124,677

Solution 1

It sounds like the computer thinks it is part of a Domain. As you mentioned the internet time tab is disabled for domain environments. The computer will sync with the domain controller and there isn't a way to have it sync to the internet in domains.

I think this article from Microsoft might help. It provides a number of registry values that effect this area. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042

Also, you might be able to run a few commands from command prompt to resolve this too:

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:MANUAL /manualpeerlist:time.nist.gov
w32tm /config /update

Solution 2

If your computer is not a domain member, the Windows Time service can be set to Manual startup mode and should ordinarily not be running.

Try just stopping the service to see if the additional tab returns. You may have to go as far as setting it to Manual startup and rebooting.

Additionally, the registry key HKEY\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers needs to be configured correctly in order to make it work. In the screen shot below, there are six available time servers listed, but the (Default) value is empty.

time server key (misconfigured)

The (Default) value needs to have something in it. Otherwise, the Internet Time tab will not show. Specifically, the (Default) value needs to have the name of one of the other values in this Servers key. It cannot have an invalid value. Using the screen shot again, a value of 6 would be invalid, because there is no corresponding time server labelled "6." On my machine, the (Default) value is 1, which means my computer gets time from time.windows.com.

Solution 3

In previous versions of Windows, the Internet Time tab was not built-into the Date and Time applet, but was added there by the Windows Time service. In Windows 7 I found weird things happening, such as seeing the service running although it was set to Manual, or of seeing Internet Time displayed and time-sync done even when the service is disabled.

I'm starting to think that Windows 7 will start the service when time-sync is to be done, no matter what is specified as its Startup type. I still don't know whether the Internet Time tab is now built-in or is still being added there by the service on its first run.

It seems however likely to me that there is still some connection between the service and the Internet Time tab, so that some corruption caused this mechanism to malfunction.

The Time service is defined in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\W32Time. In case that the problem is caused by registry corruption, I have posted this key's contents on pastebin for comparison. Do not import it blindly into the registry (or at least not before saving yours).

Otherwise, all I can suggest are general troubleshooting steps such as the System File Checker.

124,677

iSidle

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

iSidle almost 2 years

Previously, there was an Internet Time tab on the Date and Time applet of the Control Panel, wherein one could force a query of an internet time server and also type in a different server from the ones supplied. However, this tab has now disappeared, and I need to have it back. I should mention that this machine has never been part of a domain, since it seems that machines that are such do not have such a tab. I should be obliged to anyone who can help me restore the missing tab.

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
- Admin over 13 years
  
  I have a dumb question: what happens if you click on the "Change date and time" button on the dialogue box?
- Admin over 13 years
  
  You get a dialogue box called Date and Time Settings, whcih allows one to change, manually, the date and time, but nothing that allows one to configure the Windows service that automatically queries internet time servers or to force a query. That was accessed by a tab on the main Date and Time dialogue box, now gone missing.
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  Unfortunately, I still am, despite having tried the suggedtions kindly offered by Caleb Anderson.
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  Do you have Windows Time enabled in the services.msc?
- Admin almost 12 years
  
  Yes, Windows Time is enabled and running.
tvdo about 12 years

He specifically says: I should mention that this machine has never been part of a domain, since it seems that machines that are such do not have such a tab.
CEPA about 12 years

I totally missed that. I edited my post to hopefully provide a better answer. Thanks for directing me to my oversight.
iSidle almost 12 years

Stopped it, set it to Manual and rebooted: no luck—still no Internet Time tab.
Synetech almost 12 years

Um, this and this. You should know better.
harrymc almost 12 years

@Synetech: It seems to me I am simply not agreeing with the second "this", while saying that the first "this" is correct but might still not work because of registry corruption. I should maybe have been clearer about it, rather than going for a too-general answer.
Synetech almost 12 years

You said to make sure the Time Service is running but it has already been established twice that he made sure it is.
harrymc almost 12 years

@Synetech: That's what I meant by "too general", meaning going beyond the bounds of this post. But the advice to "stopping the service to see if the additional tab returns" is totally mistaken.
harrymc almost 12 years

...I agree that this answer is not the best worded, but it at least passes the message.
Synetech almost 12 years

What message? To enable the service? That has already been established to be the case; twice.
harrymc almost 12 years

@Synetech: No, to verify the service's registry configuration. And to explain WHY the service must be running.
harrymc almost 12 years

@PatrickS.: Yes, there is something weird here. I just rechecked and also found Internet Time displayed and the service not running. Previously, I'm absolutely sure that I saw it running even though it was on Manual. I've even disabled it and rebooted, but Internet Time is still displayed and time-sync is on. I'm thinking now that Windows starts the service whenever required for time sync, no matter what's its startup type, and maybe that's also when Internet Time is added. I still believe that Internet Time missing means something is wrong with the service.
harrymc almost 12 years

@Synetech: I have rewritten my answer in view of new data.
Patrick Seymour almost 12 years

It does seem to be a convoluted process, however it works. I have built-in time-related tasks in Task Scheduler (under Microsoft\Windows). I'm not sure what role these play either. I did verify the registry stuff in my answer on a few PCs, so I know that could be the issue. We'll have to see what's actually wrong with Robert's PC. For any future readers, I think several answers should stand, as there are likely many possible culprits.
harrymc almost 12 years

@PatrickS.: "time-related tasks" : I found only "Time Synchronization" for 01:00 every sunday. Did you find more ?
Patrick Seymour almost 12 years

On my domain-joined PC, that's what I have. I don't have the non-domain PC with me at the moment. But the Time Sync task starts the w32time service with an extra argument.
Patrick Seymour almost 12 years

Did you check the additional registry-related info I posted?
iSidle almost 12 years

Just did it about 15 minutes ago. There was no (Default) value set. Now Windows syncs time both automatically and manually, once I removed the no longer operational time servers. Thanks to everyone for the help.
iSidle almost 12 years

@harrymc, there was a considerable difference between your registry key and mine, which you can see at link—my original key on the left, yours on the right—so I replaced mine with yours. As it happens, though, Patrick S. had the correct answer.
harrymc almost 12 years

It seems like @Patrick S. had the right registry corruption. Does Internet Time still work with your original services\W32Time settings? (Some of the differences looked significant.) If it does then I will delete my answer.
iSidle almost 12 years

I cannot tell you if it would've worked under my original registry settings, inasmuch as I left yours in place, intending to revert to my original settings only if necessary, which it wasn't. Even after making the change that Patrick S. suggested, and thereby restoring the missing Internet Time tab in the Date and Time applet, I still could not start w32time, nor was I able to get it to start by manually changing in services.msc the account under which it runs to Local Service. However, unregistering and then registering the service seemed to fix that.
harrymc almost 12 years

There are still some mysteries left. On my computer the time-server according to the Internet Time tab is time-nw.nist.gov, but (Default) is "1" (link), which according to you should mean time.windows.com. I conjecture that (Default) should be non-empty for historical reasons, but that Windows 7 picks randomly a server, maybe only checking that it really works.
harrymc almost 12 years

OK, so I will leave my answer here as another possible corruption point. I wonder how your registry got loused up so much. Did you run a cleaner?
harrymc almost 12 years

...Maybe you should also add an answer detailing ALL the steps you took, for future readers.
Patrick Seymour almost 12 years

I get what you're saying. Maybe Windows starts with the value you put in (Default) but could change servers for a number of reasons. I know when I was putting different numbers in for the (Default) value, the time server name changed appropriately in the Date/Time applet. Like a lot of things in Windows, we may never know every detail of how it works. I also wonder if the actual selected server is based on your location.
iSidle almost 12 years

No, I didn't run a cleaner—I don't trust them. As for detailing all the steps I took, I'll see, but said steps were taken one or one-and-a-half at a time, and not documented by me as I took them, so I'll have to do a good bit of thinking (and speculating), to reconstruct something helpful.
harrymc almost 12 years

@RobertThornton: "I removed the no longer operational time servers": Are you saying that the real problem was that the contents of the Servers key were loused up? Because of my previous comment I don't really believe in (Default).
cedbeu almost 11 years

I was trying to disable Internet Time to fix the timezone conflicts between Windows and Linux in dualboot, but no luck, my computer was part of my workplace's domain, so I had no Internet Time tab. Thanks to your reply I was able to disable the Internet Time by unsetting the (Default) value and it fixed my problems. Thanks.
Chenmunka over 9 years

Interesting. The catch of course is how to access the time server with no active card - or does any change persist once the card is re-enabled?