FW: Romance Time (forwarded with permission)

[Antoine Leca]

Hi folks,

> > From: Alex LIVINGSTON [SMTP:alex at agsm.edu.au]
> > Sent: 30 June 2000 04:25
> >
> > I'm sure someone'll tell me if this is initiating a discussion that is not
> > relevant to the tz mailing list, but it involves keeping track of time on
> > computers...

I do not mind, and in fact I'm inclined to think this list is appropriate.
However, if I am wrong, I will stop discussing this matter.


> > As southeastern Australia (where I am) is starting daylight saving
> > considerably earlier this year than hitherto, I was concerned to know how
> > all our Windows boxes (especially our servers) could be made to behave
> > civilly in this circumstance.

This remembers me the problem we add in 1996, when the EU rules changed
and Windows 95 (and NT4, IIRC) reflected the old rules...

> > I asked a colleage this week about whether a
> > suitable patch or update from Microsoft (for NT) was possible, but he said
> > only service packs, which require bringing down the machine, were issued.

Yes, this is what MS is usually doing. Obviously, the meaning of quality
in this area is not the same for MS and for Arthur Olson.


> > The only way we could see of getting around the problem was by setting the
> > machines' time zone to "(GMT +11:00) Magadan, Solomon Is., New Caledonia"
> > until the date when NT thinks daylight saving starts in our zone ("...
> > Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne", from memory). Your (Antoine's) mention of
> > "the Windows time zone database" makes me wonder whether that could be
> > edited instead.

You are correct.

Dave Turnbull wrote:
> 
> For Windows NT see the MS note Q176513 (in the MSDN Lbrary CDs or on the web
> at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q176/5/13.ASP) for an
> example of ading a timezone to the list in Windows which can be selected
> from the Time/Date control panel applet. Although it doesn't talk about it
> in the article I expect you could then save that new subtree (as a .reg
> file) which can be "executed" on a(nother) user's computer.

This is correct, and this is a part of the solution that is easily applied
remotely (in fact, the article describes what should be put in a registry
script, .reg file, to reset the settings of a timezone; it is quite easy
to then distribute this kind of script).

Now, the problem is with the values to be inside the "magic" string TZI
(the binary value). You can find on the web articles that describes the real
structure (that is not difficult to guess), but I know a better way to
solve the problem. Microsoft created a long time ago (I believe it was
for NT3.1 or 3.5) an GUI applet that permit editing the database.
I do not remember a direct URL for the tool, but I downloaded it inside
<URL:http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUToys/W95KernelToy/>
(and I hope this URL is stable enough; if not, search after "TZEDIT"
or "Time Zone Editor").


Sorry, I do not know how to help you with Mac: I remember doing the changes
"manually" with some control panel, but I do not have the Mac at hands to
tell more.

Antoine