Check Windows NTP Configuration Using The Command Prompt

The other day I got a client asking for help syncing time across all Windows 10 thin clients with their NTP server. After taking a walk around NYC and witnessing many hanging shoes I refreshed my head I found a useful way to check Windows NTP configuration using the command prompt.

Using w32tm To Check and configure NTP using the Command Prompt

In Windows 10 open your command prompt and type the below command to check your current NTP configuration:

w32tm /query /configuration

The above gives you the current time configuration.

w32tm /query /status

The above shows you many more details, such as: stratum, precision, last sync, NTP server and etc..

time /T

This last one shows the current time.

At some Windows10 machines I got the below error:

The following error occurred: The service has not been started. (0x80070426)

This means the time service has is not running or disabled. I made sure to enabled accordingly either using the command prompt:

net start w32time

or at the services window when the above did not work:

There’s also a way to set and start Windows NTP configuration using the command prompt this way:

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:10.0.0.5 /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

Then, as usual Windows stays problematic. I had to run the below commands in sequence:

w32tm /unregister
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
net start w32time

I did all these because I found out by running:

net time /querysntp

I got the deprecated error:

The /QUERYSNTP and /SETSNTP options have been deprecated. Please use w32tm.exe to configure the Windows Time Service.

At the end of the config you might need to run:

w32tm /config /update
w32tm /resync /rediscover

To make Windows 10 rediscover its NTP settings. Play around, research the official Windows documentation. You can also place all these command on a batch file and deploy it to all your clients.

Good luck! Contact me if you have any questions. Remember to check out my IT Handyman shop for cool T-Shirts and coffee mugs I designed once in a while.