DST: Fix Your PC's Time
"Spring forward, Fall on your Face" is the new expression to help you remember which way to set your PC's clock. That's because Congress has decided to fiddle with the natural order of time again. It's bad enough we have to deal with moving our clocks back and forth; now the date for daylight saving time starts three weeks earlier and ends one week later than before.
How are your PC, its calendaring programs, TiVo, and not to mention your inner circadian rhythm going to deal with it? Mostly okay, is what everything the Internet experts have to say. (Me, I might resort to an increase -- or is that a decrease -- in melatonin.)
For more details, read "Daylight-Saving Change Requires Easy Fixes" here.
What Time Is It?
Making sure your PC handles the time change is pretty straightforward, and if you've been consistently using Microsoft's updates, you're likely in good shape.
The best place to start is Microsoft's straightforward Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center site. Choose an option (most of you ought to pick Home user). Once you select your operating system, you'll be able to download and run an update. (From what I understand, Win 3.1 users are out of luck.)
If the update has already been installed, you'll get an error message, rather than something smart, like: "don't worry, be happy, all is okay." Either way, just click OK and take the rest of the day off.
Lookout for Outlook
But wait a minute. Do you use Outlook, more specifically, the Calendar feature in Outlook? Then keep clicking, because now you'll need an update for your specific version of Outlook. You'll download a utility -- the Time Zone Data Update Tool -- based on the version you're using. Follow the steps presented in the installation and subsequent dialogs.
If you want it, you can grab the Time Zone Data Update Tool here.
I know that some of you are compulsive and occasionally obsessive about Outlook and want all the minutia. Microsoft's " Prepare Outlook calendar items for daylight saving time changes in 2007" has everything you need and you can get to it here.
There's more yet. How to configure daylight saving time for the United States in 2007 includes Registry settings. If you're a network administrator or using an older version of Windows, check the IntelliAdmin site.
Regular Windows Updates
You say you haven't updated recently? Here's how: From the Start menu, click Help and Support, then " Keep your computer up-to-date with Windows Update," and follow the instructions.
[Thanks to Leo, Karl, Brad, Carl, Jon, and Walter Ivey for help with the facts. Check Walt's tech blog here.]
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Or, you can move to a state such as Arizona where we don't play the silly time change thing.
...Unless you live on one of the reservations that overlaps states; people on even the AZ-only reservations keep two clocks, one with, one without (NPR story, or Pacifica? Now I can't find it...)