How to add multiple NTP servers in Windows

Neither the Windows Settings app nor the Control Panel will let you configure multiple time-servers in Windows. You’ll need to execute some commands in the Command Prompt to get this set up. I’ll walk you through the whole process:

  1. Open an administrative Command Prompt by searching for “cmd” in the Start menu, right-clicking on the program, and choosing “Run as administrator”.
  2. Ensure that the time service is currently running by stopping and starting it by entering following command and pressing Enter:
    net stop w32time & net start w32time
  3. Configure your list of preferred time-servers by listing their IP or DNS addresses within the quotation marks in the following command; separating multiple servers with spaces:
    w32tm /config /update /manualpeerlist:"pool.ntp.org time.windows.com time.apple.com time.cloudflare.com"

The above example configures Windows to use time-servers operated by the NTP Pool Project, Microsoft, Apple, and Cloudflare. Note that there shouldn’t be any line breaks in the command; it’s all on one line.

  1. Lastly, we’ll tell Windows to resynchronize its time against the newly configured time-servers and finally show the new configuration to confirm that everything is working:
    w32tm /resync
    w32tm /query /peers

Note that these changes won’t show up if you go to inspect your internet time configuration in the Time and Date section of the Control Panel. You shouldn’t make any changes there to avoid overwriting your manual configuration.

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