Faking time without changing Windows system clock

Question

Does anybody know of a Windows tool to report fake dates/times to a process?

Apparently there are Linux programs that can be used to test how the software will react in the future / in a different timezone or to trigger scheduled tasks without actually modifying the system clock. Are there such programs for Windows?

StackzOfZtuff · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-12 10:37:03Z

21

RunAsDate can do this.

Nirsoft RunAsDate v1.41 - Run a program with the specified date/time

RunAsDate is a small utility that allows you to run a program in the date and time that you specify. This utility doesn't change the current system date and time of your computer, but it only injects the date/time that you specify into the desired application. You can run multiple applications simultaneously, each application works with different date and time, while the real date/time of your system continues to run normally.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html

edited Nov 12 at 10:37

StackzOfZtuff

3,2751 gold badge32 silver badges31 bronze badges

answered Jan 13, 2009 at 0:52

rbrayb

47.1k34 gold badges122 silver badges180 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Ishmaeel Over a year ago

Awesome, thanks. Though it doesn't seem to affect the grand-child processes that the initial process might start, it is better than nothing.

BuddyJoe · Accepted Answer · 2009-01-13 03:15:21Z

0

Starting about 2 years ago, I always abstract the call to DateTime.Now (C#) through a Utility class. This way I can always fake the date/time if I want to, or just pass it directly through to DateTime.Now.

Sounds similiar to what BillH suggested.

public class MyUtil
{
  public static DateTime GetDateTime()
  {
     return DateTime.Now.AddHours(5);
     //return DateTime.Now;   
  }
}

edited Jan 13, 2009 at 3:15

answered Jan 13, 2009 at 3:07

BuddyJoe

71.4k115 gold badges302 silver badges475 bronze badges

2 Comments

tmighty Over a year ago

You mean for this project, right? It wouldn't work system-wide, right? :-)

BuddyJoe Over a year ago

Correct. Only for a single project. Would be nice if the system gave you a way to abstract this away (at a system level). Can Docker do this? Use a false / incorrect time from the underlying system? I know a Virtual Machine could.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Faking time without changing Windows system clock

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related