Jul
28
2008

How to configure Daylight Saving Time (DST) for Microsoft Windows operating systems in Pakistan

Categories:

Computers,
Pakistan

Effective June 01, 2008, Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been re-introduced in Pakistan meaning that all watches, clocks and mobile phones needed to be shifted one hour ahead. The same goes for our computers as well, but the unfortunately, Windows XP had no provision for enabling DST changes for users in Pakistan. However, despite a very short notice, on June 02, 2008, Microsoft did release a patch to accommodate the change. If for some reason you do not have the latest Windows Updates installed on your system, I hope that through this short tutorial, you all would be able to make the required changes to your computers manually so that they are synchronized with DST.

First of all, you would require a Time Zone Editor tool, which is available for download here. Download the file onto your system. After downloading, double click on the file and it would ask for a location to extract the 2 files within it. Extract them to a location of your choice. Of the 2 files, one is tzedit.exe which is the file you would require.

To manually modify time zone settings by using the Time Zone Editor, follow these steps:
1. Start Time Zone Editor [tzedit.exe]

2. In the Time Zones list, select a time zone, and then click Edit. For example, for Pakistani’s to make the required change, click (GMT +05:00) Islamabad, Karachi and then click Edit.

3. In the Edit Time Zone dialog box, click to select the Automatically set Daylight Saving Time check box.

4. Specify the correct daylight saving time start date and end date. To do this, follow these steps:

a. In the Start Day box, click the number of the day, the corresponding day of the week, and the month that you want. For us in Pakistan, click First, click Sunday, and then click June.
b. Select the time that you want to start daylight saving time. For example, select 12:00:59 A.M.
c. In the Last Day box, click the number of the day, the corresponding day of the week, and the month that you want. For us in Pakistan, click Last, click Sunday, and then click August.
d. Select the time that you want to end daylight saving time. For example, select 12:00:59 A.M.
e. In the Daylight Bias list, select how long you want the time to change when daylight saving time is in effect. To set the clock forward 1 hour, leave the default setting of +1:00.
f. Click OK.

g. Click Start, point to Settings, point to Control Panel, and then double-click Date/Time.
h. Click the Time Zone tab.
i. Select a different time zone than the (GMT +05:00) Islamabad, Karachi time zone, and then click Apply.
j. Click (GMT +05:00) Islamabad, Karachi and then click OK.

Note: Steps 4i and 4j are required for the new changes to take effect.

In this example, steps 4a through 4f update the time zone database. Steps 4g through 4j force Windows to read the time zone database and copy the updated information into the TimeZoneInformation registry key in the current control set.

I hope the following screenshots help you as well. Before saving, your changes should look like those shown in the second image.