Windows Update and Daylight Saving Time

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich Pasco
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Rich Pasco

Is there anybody else who is as mad as I am that Microsoft is
discontinuing Windows Update for Windows 2000, in a very thinly
veiled attempt at planned obsolescence to boost sales for Vista?

Perhaps the most visible effect will be on March 11, when the
new Daylight Saving Time goes into effect, but unmodified Windows
2000 systems will still be chugging along on Standard Time for a
few more weeks. Most lay people, who don't read this newsgroup,
won't have any idea what to do about it.

Windows 2000 can be fixed manually, but who's going to go to the
effort?

The Washington Post news clipping is here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16912614/

I put out a step-by-step procedure here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~richpasco/dst.html

- Rich
 
[This followup was posted to microsoft.public.win2000.general and a copy
was sent to the cited author.]

richp1234 said:
Is there anybody else who is as mad as I am that Microsoft is
discontinuing Windows Update for Windows 2000, in a very thinly
veiled attempt at planned obsolescence to boost sales for Vista?

Perhaps the most visible effect will be on March 11, when the
new Daylight Saving Time goes into effect, but unmodified Windows
2000 systems will still be chugging along on Standard Time for a
few more weeks. Most lay people, who don't read this newsgroup,
won't have any idea what to do about it.

Windows 2000 can be fixed manually, but who's going to go to the
effort?

The Washington Post news clipping is here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16912614/

I put out a step-by-step procedure here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~richpasco/dst.html
Click to expand...

You missed one last step in your procedure. You must change your
timezone to something else, then back to your real one so that Windows
will update it's internal settings.
 
Sid said:
Seems pretty long-winded for a tiny utility who's use is pretty much
self-explanatory and which, in any case that comes with its own small,
more than adequate help file.
Click to expand...

Sid, thanks for the feedback, but you're a technical person, as am I.
Most of the users I support are technophobes barely able to find their
power switch, let alone download and install a utility without step by
step hand-holding.

- Rich
 
Andrew said:
You missed one last step in your procedure. You must change your
timezone to something else, then back to your real one so that Windows
will update it's internal settings.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have added that step now at your suggestion.
That is exactly the kind of technical review I had hoped to get
by posting it to this forum, before giving it to my community of
non-technical users.

- Rich
 
Rich said:
Sid, thanks for the feedback, but you're a technical person, as am I.
Most of the users I support are technophobes barely able to find their
power switch, let alone download and install a utility without step by
step hand-holding.
Click to expand...

Yes, I realised that, Rich, but it occurred to me that such people are
most unlikely to find their way here.
 
Sid said:
Yes, I realised that, Rich, but it occurred to me that such people are
most unlikely to find their way here.
Click to expand...

Exactly, Sid, which is why I prepared the web page that I can give
directly to my users: "Here is what you do. Do exactly this."

- Rich
 
While we're on the subject, is TZEdit supposed to work in Windows 98?
[It doesn't for me, although I can't find anywhere that says it won't.]
 
I see contradictory recommendations on which timezones to change with tzedit.
some say just do the one you are in and others say do all that are affected.
If your computer never changes zones and your domain is all in one zone do
you need to do the others?
 
lansvcs said:
I see contradictory recommendations on which timezones to change with tzedit.
some say just do the one you are in and others say do all that are affected.
If your computer never changes zones and your domain is all in one zone do
you need to do the others?
Click to expand...

Don't see the point of changing any timezone other than the one you're
in. This thing is just an automated registry change and will only be
"sticky" until the next time you reinstall .... which for most people is
probably much more likely than a timezone change.
 
This is what i think as well however MSKB 914387 under the section titled
"Manually configure daylight saving time dates" under step 4g says Repeat
steps a through f for every time zone that has changed. Why are they saying
this if it does not matter? At the same time i don't see why it matters for
timezones other than your own.
 
Just to get you to a *complete* update to save MS the bother of issuing
a formal fix (which in any case is against their policy for Win2K now
that support has been dropped). That way it fixes things even in the
small number of instances where people change time zones after the fix,
so the fix is more "general".

Wouldn't be the dumbest thing MS ever did.
 
Think air traveler and laptops.
This is what i think as well however MSKB 914387 under the section titled
"Manually configure daylight saving time dates" under step 4g says Repeat
steps a through f for every time zone that has changed. Why are they saying
this if it does not matter? At the same time i don't see why it matters for
timezones other than your own.

:
Click to expand...
 
Just a guess but there might be specialized software that may need all
the correct time zone information. Travel agencies that might have
special software that keeps flight/travel schedules and stuff like that.
You don't want to miss your flight because the software incorrectly
calculated your flight departure time. Other kinds of scheduling
software may also need to work across time zones to keep track of the
proper times for client appointments... you don't want telemarketers
from other parts calling you at 10:00 pm because their dialing software
couldn't figure out the right time in your area. Spreadsheet programs
might also have time calculation functions that could use the TZ info.
Just ideas and guesses...

For most parts I think it hardly matters to your computer what time it
is in Tuktoyaktuk, but it is easy with the information from Microsoft or
with other "unofficial" patches to change all the time zone information
so you may as well change them all.

John
 
Just a guess but there might be specialized software that may need all
the correct time zone information. Travel agencies that might have
special software that keeps flight/travel schedules and stuff like that.
You don't want to miss your flight because the software incorrectly
calculated your flight departure time. Other kinds ofschedulingsoftwaremay also need to work across time zones to keep track of the
proper times for client appointments... you don't want telemarketers
from other parts calling you at 10:00 pm because their dialing software
couldn't figure out the right time in your area. Spreadsheet programs
might also have time calculation functions that could use the TZ info.
Just ideas and guesses...

For most parts I think it hardly matters to your computer what time it
is in Tuktoyaktuk, but it is easy with the information from Microsoft or
with other "unofficial" patches to change all the time zone information
so you may as well change them all.

John





- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

some time zones are on/off daylight saving, etc.
www.salonoperations.com, salon software, spa software and point of
sale solutions
 
Sid said:
Don't see the point of changing any timezone other than the one you're
in.
Click to expand...

Then you end up with a computer which malfunctions if you ever move to
another time zone. As for me, I travel with a laptop and change time
zones every few days.
This thing is just an automated registry change and will only be
"sticky" until the next time you reinstall .... which for most people is
probably much more likely than a timezone change.
Click to expand...

How often do you reinstall Windows?

- Rich
 
Hi Rich - FYI:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/01/unofficial-windows-2000-daylight.html


--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MVP, DTS, ASVOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/



In Rich Pasco <[email protected]> typed:
|| Is there anybody else who is as mad as I am that Microsoft is
|| discontinuing Windows Update for Windows 2000, in a very thinly
|| veiled attempt at planned obsolescence to boost sales for Vista?
||
|| Perhaps the most visible effect will be on March 11, when the
|| new Daylight Saving Time goes into effect, but unmodified Windows
|| 2000 systems will still be chugging along on Standard Time for a
|| few more weeks. Most lay people, who don't read this newsgroup,
|| won't have any idea what to do about it.
||
|| Windows 2000 can be fixed manually, but who's going to go to the
|| effort?
||
|| The Washington Post news clipping is here:
|| http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16912614/
||
|| I put out a step-by-step procedure here:
|| http://home.earthlink.net/~richpasco/dst.html
||
|| - Rich
 
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