Premature switch back to standard time

[Greybird]

I was up at 2:00 am Sunday morning, and saw my WinXP SP3 box change the time from 2:00 to 1:00, making the switch back to Pacific Standard Time.

There's just one problem, though: The switch is made on the first Sunday in November, not the last Sunday in October.

I find it hard to think that Microsoft would drop the ball so obviously on such a change. They make a point of sending updates to Daylight Time rules around the world, at least twice yearly, through Windows Update. (Meddling legislators needlessly cause that problem, around the globe, but that's another topic.)

I moved the clock forward an hour for another week. Apparently the time.windows.com server still insists that California is already in Pacific Standard Time.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[BATcher]

Have a look at Microsoft Help and Support - Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Centre to see if you have installed the most recent update...

[Medico]

Greybird, Have you checked what your settings were prior to the change? Particularly, what was the date set to? If this were incorrect, that change would be wrong as well.

[Greybird]

Thanks for the replies. The date had been correct and the DST change had already been done properly three times (forward 2010, back 2010, forward 2011) under the revised DST laws.

At the Microsoft link, I found that, indeed, I had missed an update to XP's DST rules that came out in August 2011. Installing that (KB2570791) made XP recognize, properly, that under U.S. law and in California, DST was still in effect this week.

This, though, indicates a misstep on Windows Secrets columnist Susan Bradley's part. In "Patch Watch" she had suggested not bothering with this update, and I'd put it aside when Windows Update called for doing it. Her rationale was that it involved minor DST changes for several countries far from North America.

Obviously, she was mistaken as to whether changes (or, here, fixes) pertinent to the U.S. were included. She also, though, mis-assessed whether it ought to be installed. For IP managers trying to diminish their workload, shearing this off may make sense. For small-office / home-office and personal users (I'm both), it's another story. Omitting this really didn't save time or effort.

[Medico]

Glad you got everything sorted out. Unfortunately, every setup is a little different and what works best for the masses does not always work best for everyone. In my case, although I do appreciate Susan's efforts, I look at all offered updates, look at the More Info link, then decide for myself if I want it. I do always advocate for having up to date Images on hand so that if an update breaks something, in about 10 minutes you can be back to where you were before the update broke whatever.

[jlprtr]

I was up at 2:00 am Sunday morning, and saw my WinXP SP3 box change the time from 2:00 to 1:00, making the switch back to Pacific Standard Time.
................Snip.............................. ......

I find it hard to think that Microsoft would drop the ball so obviously on such a change.
Apparently the time.windows.com server still insists that California is already in Pacific Standard Time.

This is why I only use time.gov.