With changes in the laws of some countries, many users of Windows-based computer systems began to have problems with incorrect time settings. To correct the situation, for example, in Windows 7, time zone updates are applied. Why is this necessary, how does such an update work, we will now see.
Windows 7. Time Zone Updates: Why Do I Need It?
The most important thing that you should immediately understand is the need to automate the system settings associated with the correct time settings, depending on the region of the user's location.
At the same time, in the same Windows 7, updating the time zones for any country is connected exclusively with the automatic transition to summer time and vice versa. In some countries, such a transition was canceled, which, in fact, caused the need to reconfigure the computer system. After all, how was it before? The system time during the transition changed completely automatically, and after a change in the legislation of the country, a false positive results, so to speak. That's why the specialists of Microsoft Corporation and offer all users to install an additional update, which will change the current settings.
General principles for updating time zones on any Windows system
In general, this topic affects all modifications of the Windows OS, and not just the "seven". The update for time zones (XP, server version 2008 or any other) works on the same principle.
The essence of the question is to register in the system registry in the settings responsible for the automation of time transitions, which are provided for in a region, new values. With all this, as many people probably already understand, doing these things manually is absolutely ungrateful, because the system itself can be irreparably damaged, and even so that it will cease to work at all later.
To do this, on the official website in the updates section you just need to download a special update in the form of an executable script that will create the necessary keys in the registry.
Cumulative Time Zone Update
In later versions of Windows, if the update was not offered for download automatically, you can use manual search. To do this, use the appropriate section in the standard Control Panel.
As for how Windows 2008 or XP time zones are updated with the third service pack not installed, you will have to download such updates yourself. Manual search in this case may not work.
How it works?
After downloading the appropriate package in the same Windows 7, time zones will be updated completely automatically, and switching to daylight saving time and vice versa depending on the user's location will no longer cause errors, which in some cases, due to incorrect date and time settings , can even lead to the complete inoperability of the system, up to the appearance of screens of death.
However, if the download and subsequent integration of the package into the system is performed in the automatic update mode, there should be no problems. If for some reason this does not work, you should download the package yourself, while paying attention to the version of the OS, its bit capacity and the presence of some required components (for example, in the case of Windows XP this is the third service pack SP3, the most recent release).
Separately, it is worth mentioning what should not be done categorically. If anyone does not know, there is no official update for Windows XP with a second service pack. Therefore, changing the key values in the HKLM registry branch through SOFTWARE, and then in the CurrentVersion / Time Zones subsection, you will need to manually. However, in order not to deal with such things, it is better to immediately install SP3 first, after downloading it from the official Microsoft resource, and then do exclusively updating time zones with integrating the KB package with the corresponding number into the system.
By the way, in Windows 7 updating time zones affects not only the entire system as a whole, but also some of its components separately. So, for example, to the greatest extent this affects the standard Microsoft Outlook mail client. And what definitely cannot be done is to delete the registry subkeys associated with the time zone settings, even if this data is outdated or does not apply to your region. In the extreme case, it is better to use some kind of optimizer that allows you to fix incorrect or outdated entries automatically and without harming the system.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is nothing critical in installing such an update in any version of Windows. At least, this will allow avoiding problems with incorrect settings in the future, say, when accessing any resources on the Internet or installing specific software. And the process itself can be fully automated, provided that the required update is found and downloaded to the computer. True, in the absence of the necessary updates of the system itself as service packs, sometimes difficulties can arise, therefore it is strongly recommended to install them before downloading and integrating the time zone update package into the system.