Daylight savings brings headaches for Microsoft

By Shaun Nichols on Mar 13, 2007 2:22 PM
Filed under Software

Limited systems get bitten by daylight savings bug.

Microsoft is warning users that despite the DST2007 patch, some PCs running Windows XP, 2003 and 2000 are not properly adjusting to last weekend change in daylight savings time (DST) in the US.

Certain computers running the DST patch continue to display the standard time, rather than the current daylight savings time, which went into effect early Sunday morning. This year, the US and Canada moved daylight savings time forward three weeks in an effort to conserve energy.

Even the latest workaround is not fixing DST woes for all users. Microsoft has received reports of certain versions of Windows 2000 reverting back to the old time settings. Fixing the issue can require reinstalling the DST fix, editing a system registry, and then running the automated script, Microsoft said.

Microsoft said that it is still investigating the issue, but the company thinks that the problem may be related to Windows' security settings.

The Windows clock can be manually adjusted to recognise daylight savings time by switching the machine's settings to a new time zone and then reverting back to the correct zone.

The adjustment process is relatively simple and not a major concern for home users. For large academic and enterprise networks with hundreds of workstations, however, manually adjusting the time on every PC can mean hours of tedious work. In order to ease the load on administrators, Microsoft is offering an automated script that can be run to correctly adjust the time. The script requires that the machine also has the DST patch installed.