Windows 11 Pro - need very accurate time

Jake Sokol 101 Reputation points
2025-03-12T21:10:30.18+00:00

guys - I have a surveillance workgroup computer with some 3rd party apps that use Windows time and hence I need the time to be accurate down to the second. Currently it's off by 2-3 seconds and gets in sync when I do a manual sync. I saw these instructions on another site and were wondering if they are still valid or if there is a better sway

I think the correct answer to this question is to decrease the MaxPollInterval and MinPollInterval entry in the registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config

These values are 2^MinPollInterval seconds. So if you want 5 minutes, you should set your MinPollInterval to 8 (2^8 = 256 seconds). Your MaxPollInterval, you can set it to w.e. you like, but 10 is the default for domain controllers (2^10 sec = 17 min). EDIT: After some testing, the MinPollInterval wasn't the time interval that was being used to do the time checks.

Also note that there are parameters that allow you to change how much time desynchronization is allowed (MaxAllowedPhaseOffset), and if a time synchronization has to happen, if it will happen gradually or instantaneously.

Note that you can set MaxAllowedPhaseOffset to 0 (seconds), which means that it will force a synchronization at every time check.

Windows 11
Windows 11
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