[ntp:questions] Re: Windows timekeeping

David J Taylor david-taylor at blueyonder.co.not-this-bit.nor-this-part.uk
Sun Aug 6 19:56:14 UTC 2006


Bryan Henderson wrote:
[]
> So you're talking about the person at the factory, not the person who
> gets the computer from the factory, right.
>
> It's been ages since I've seen a computer fresh from the factory, but
> I assume it comes with Windows already on it and the first thing the
> user sees when he turns it on is a "welcome to Windows, let's set up
> your computer" dialog.  This dialog asks what time zone you're in and,
> because it knows that even if it was set at the factory, the hardware
> clock would have drifted a lot, it asks what time it is.  The program
> then sets the hardware clock, making a choice as to what time zone
> offset to use with it.  It chooses the user's local time zone.
>
> With this scenario, the reason for that choice obviously is not
> because the user is comfortable with local time -- the user never even
> sees those numbers.  It is apparently a matter of backward
> compatibility.
>
> It's also my impression that the system builder at the factory doesn't
> go into a BIOS screen to set the hardware clock, but that guy probably
> isn't relevant if the scenario described above happens later.

Well, the first thing I would do would be to go into the BIOS and ensure 
that things like time were correctly set, so I'm probably not your average 
user!

>From what I've seen, the hardware clock is often almost correct (time 
zones apart).  Windows will ask the user what time zone they are in - it 
doesn't make assumptions (although Pacific may be the default).

Cheers,
David 





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