Unofficial Win2K Daylight Saving Time Fix 299
Saturn2003a writes "Microsoft has stated that they will not be offering a patch for the new US Daylight Saving Time for Windows 2000 and earlier. Only customers with an extended support agreement can get a Hotfix from Microsoft. To get around this, IntelliAdmin has created an unofficial patch (source code provided) that will fix Daylight Saving Time on Windows 2000 and Windows NT machines."
Well... (Score:3, Informative)
Fortunately, the corporate users with a domain will still have a DC as an authoritative time source, and can just adjust the time on one server to keep everyone else in sync.
It's not like there are no other options (Score:5, Informative)
This knowledge base article [microsoft.com] from Microsoft describes how to use the Time Zone Editor utility (which you can download from that page) to adjust time zone settings.
If you need to update several computers, it also describes which registry keys to export. You can then import those registry keys in a logon script or whatever.
It's not like people/companies running Win2k are SOL.
Not Entirely Stuck (Score:3, Informative)
DST in some countries changes every year... (Score:5, Informative)
holiday happens to occur in the lunar calendar, so every year in our data centers we either
change the clocks manually, or rely on the Domain Controller on changing the time for
the servers and workstations in the domain.
And we don't complain to Microsoft for not providing us a fix for it.
-D
Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:New Daylight Savings Time rules? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, it was passed into law in August of 2005, so it's been around for a while. Here's a link [nist.gov] to the relevant bits. Following is the relevant changes:
It actually got quite a bit of news coverage at the time. It's been on Slashdot several times [google.com] as well.
Cheers
The fix (Score:2, Informative)
2. net stop "windows time"
3. net time
4. net start "windows time"
done. Works as long as the locale and tz on ntp server are set correctly.
History? (Score:3, Informative)
If Microsoft's patch will cause Windows XP (or Vista) to show the WRONG time for files saved near the DST change dates/times in years past, then it is NOT A FIX. This DST change has very, very deep effects on every single program that processes ANY dates/times before 2007 in the US. Program that went back before the current DST settings have already dealt with this (or decided to be wrong), but for those of us with no data older than Windows itself, we've never had to worry about this...until now.
For example, a power company wants to compare the power usage trend for, say, 5-6pm (when a large portion of people get out of and home from work) during late March for the years 2005-2008. If their software doesn't know to account for two different DST rules, then two of those years will be comparing the wrong hour of the day. And, FWIW, I chose this example specifically because it lends itself much more to local time than to UTC.
So, to patch this correctly, Windows will need to know which set of [at least two] DST rules to use (based on the year) when translating ANY time from 'system' (i.e. UTC) to 'local'. I don't see that happening, so I don't think that even the XP and Vista users will have a working OS, at least in the sense of correct time translation from UTC to local in the USA.
Re:Use UTC, RealTimeIsUniversal=1 (Score:3, Informative)
On the subject of gammer...it's not "savings" (Score:3, Informative)
It's, "Daylight Saving [wikipedia.org] Time," not, "Daylight Savings Time." It's not like we're, "savings teh 1337 daylights." (daylight is singular)
At least the summary had it right.
Re:My fix - avoid vendors that act like assholes. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Yeah, right (Score:4, Informative)
It also fixes lots of other problems with DOS that people have struggled with.
Yes, DOS is still useable and in use today by lots of important devices.
Re:But they're still an asshole. (Score:5, Informative)
official (sortof) fix (Score:4, Informative)
Every version of Windows has a "resource kit", though Microsoft only supports Win98+ so you may need to hit old download sites for those ancient versions of Windows. You can download the resource kit from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/ [microsoft.com]. Download this if you do not have it already.
Once the resource kit is downloaded and installed search your disk drive for tzedit.exe and run it.
Select your timezone from the list and click edit.
You'll have two boxes "Start Day" and "End Day" change these from what they are to what they need to be for the new change.
Click Ok, then Close.
To make the settings take effect restart, or select Date/Time from the control panel, choose a different timezone, save and close then repeat selecting your correct timezone this time.
Re:My fix - avoid vendors that act like assholes. (Score:2, Informative)
No, Windows' time code ACTUALLY IS broken (Score:3, Informative)
First of all, it sets the hardware clock to local time rather than GMT, so it breaks other OSs when dual-booting. Second, it puts file timestamps in local time (at least on FAT), so if you change timezones your timestamps can get screwed up. And screwed up timestamps can actually break stuff -- backups, make, etc.