Windows trivia & limitations for DST info

[mikesw]

Well, I wasn't sure where to post this trivia info for those wondering what the various windows

OS' have in terms of DST limitations imposed by microsoft. Thus, I posted it here, since Vista is

the most recent OS although it contains info for other OS'. So if one wanted to modify the TimeZone

DBMS based on the unix tzone and tz dbms going back to no earlier than 1970, then one will

have problems. See,

http://www.answers.com/topic/daylight-savi...?cat=technology

Microsoft Windows
The procedure for adjusting and patching the DST configuration of Microsoft Windows varies with release.[79] Windows Vista supports at most two start and end rules per time zone setting. In a Canadian location observing DST, a single Vista setting supports both 1987–2006 and post-2006 time stamps, but mishandles some older time stamps. Older Microsoft Windows systems usually store only a single start and end rule for each zone, so that the same Canadian setting reliably supports only post-2006 time stamps.[80]
These limitations have caused problems. For example, before 2005, DST in Israel varied each year and was skipped some years. Windows 95 used rules correct for 1995 only, causing problems in later years. In Windows 98 Microsoft gave up and marked Israel as not having DST, causing Israeli users to shift their computer clocks manually twice a year. The 2005 Israeli Daylight Saving Law established predictable rules but Windows zone files cannot represent the rules' dates in a year-independent way. Partial workarounds include manually switching zone files every year[81] and a Microsoft tool that switches zones automatically.[82]

Per [81] This link will take you to a page whereby a consulting ageny wrote zone files to correct the israeli DST

issues from 2005 on win 2k, xp. They dont work on w98/ME. See http://lingnu.com/support.html#timezone

Here's answers.com listing of Tzones by name based on the Unix version maintained by nih.gov.

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-tz-zo...name?cat=travel

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-tz-zones-by-country

I wonder why they don't list them as "continent/country/capital_city" since it would be easier than leaving

the country off the list and just listing the countries capital?

Note: some country names are run by different international countries which split the country up (i.e. Virgin Islands),

and some countries may have a small region or a city in one timezone with the rest of the region/city

in another one. see http://www.timegenie.com/time

Edited July 1, 2008 by mikesw