Is Windows Ready for Daylight Savings Time?

[muckshifter]

Well, not for us here in good old Blighty, but the "Yanks" just have to be different ...

It's this Sunday, if any of you are interested, they get to move their clocks forward an loose an hours sleep over it ...

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans] This Sunday, March 11, is the new beginning of daylight saving time in the U.S. in 2007.[/font] [font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]Daylight-saving time — a one-hour shift of time during late spring, summer, and early autumn that provides an extra hour of light in the evening — is beginning and ending on different days this year. The government is experimenting with lengthening daylight-saving time by one month in order to conserve energy during early-evening peak-usage time. So daylight-saving time starts three weeks earlier this year and stops one week later. The change is an excellent idea. But like a lot of things to do with time and computers, in this first year of change it's causing headaches for those who maintain computer operating systems and applications.[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]Apple has fixed this for Macs with an online update that was released a couple of weeks ago. (Mac applications might also need updating, though, such as Microsoft Office Entourage.)[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]Microsoft has also fixed it for Vista users and Windows XP users who have Automatic Updates turned on. I've seen both Vista and XP patches on my machines. The XP patch has the Microsoft Knowledgebase ID number of 931836.[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]One complicating factor is that this isn't just about the operating system. Microsoft Outlook, for example, is also affected (KB931667).[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]For IT people this gets even more complicated. Here's Microsoft's list of desktop and server products that need to be updated for daylight-saving time.[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]This Microsoft support document, "Preparing for Daylight Saving Time Changes in 2007," offers an excellent explanation of the problems, with links to steps and solutions.[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]Microsoft also has a start page for this issue that's aimed at both end-users and IT people. It's worth a look.[/font]

[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]All that's the good news. The bad news is that Microsoft is not offering help for users of Windows 98, Windows ME, and all Microsoft operating systems prior to Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4. Now, obviously, you can manually change the time on your system clock and turn off the automatic time-switch for daylight-savings time. But there may be other related issues, perhaps in applications.

[/font][/font]At 1.00 am on 25 March 2007 "civil time" will return to BST and the clocks will move forward by an hour.[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans]... oh the joys of Spring.[/font]




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[murdoch]

Does Vista not do it for you automaticaly & then hope's you have a nice day?

 

[muckshifter]

Does Vista not do it for you automatically & then hope's you have a nice day?

Of course it's fixed ... third paragraph ... won't know about "have a nice day" though, I always have nice days.

 

[Ian]

I thought you were pulling my leg there for a few mins I need to check what the PCR server will do, as it is located in the US but is for a UK based site... may have to have a look

I wish we could just move to decimal time

 

[muckshifter]

Sorry Ian, but it ain't me havin the joke ... them damn yankies again.

 

[muckshifter]

Well ... so, what time is it then ?

 

[Ian]

The server time should be correct, 10:34 am

 

[muckshifter]

oh rats ... we didn't fall out of the sky & crash then ... computers are no fun anymore.