Old Versions of Windows and Daylight Saving Time: The Phantom Menace

Reader Bob Hunt wrote me to ask about Windows 98 and daylight saving time. As you (hopefully) know, DST moves three weeks earlier this year, to March 11 (yech!). And as you also hopefully know, Windows has long since automatically changed your clock for you when daylight saving time hits.

If you're using XP or Vista, no worries about the new DST rules. But what if you're using Windows 2000 or earlier? Microsoft no longer supports Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition at all, and Windows 2000 is only supported through "Extended Hotfix Support." In other words: You're out of luck.

So what are you options for handling daylight saving time (or daylight savings time, if you're sloppy) and you don't want to upgrade to a more modern OS? Not a lot.

First, how about automated solutions? If you're running Windows 2000 you can check out IntelliAdmin's unofficial patch for DST at this link. I've tried it and, like other IntelliAdmin products, it works fine.

If you're running Windows 95, 98, or NT, I haven't found an automated solution, but you can try Microsoft's Time Zone Editor, which lets you manually update time zones. I don't have any PCs running any of these OSes, so I can't really tell you how easy this tool is to use, but it's worth a try. (Update: Here are detailed instuctions on using TZEDIT. Scroll down to "The Windows Time Zone Editor tool.")

I hesitate even linking to this, but in the interest of completeness, if you're computer friendly, Microsoft has instructions on hacking the registry to make DST changes yourself without extra software. Experts only!

Lastly, you can always do what we did in the days before Windows 95: Change your computer clock manually (and change it again when it gets auto-changed three weeks later). Even if you forget to change it for a day, I think it's safe to assume that most PCs running Windows 98 are not doing anything so critical that having a one hour error in the time stamp is going to cause the world to implode.

Good luck, and if anyone discovers any automated Win 95/98/NT DST fixes, please post them here or email me so I can update this post.

Update: IntelliAdmin finally has a patch for Windows 98 and Windows Me. Thanks, John!