time different between Mac OS X and Windows XP

[bajiaomao]

Everytime I switch to Windows XP from OS X, the time in Windows XP is not right. I googled first, some suggested to add a key in Windows registry, I tried but not working. I installed another windows xp as a virtual machine with VMware Fusion. The time there is same as in OS X. Anyone knows how to fix this problem?:)

[synth3tik]

did you install the Mac drivers after you installed XP?

If so I don't know, Windows is stupid.:)

[bajiaomao]

with Intel Macbook, Bootcamp 1.3, windows xp pro

[bajiaomao]

did you install the Mac drivers after you installed XP?

If so I don't know, Windows is stupid.:)

yes. I installed Mac drivers. Everything else works perfectly well. Only the time is different. I set timezone as "+8:00 Shanghai, China" in OS X ;"+8:00 Beijing,China“ in Windows. :confused:

[CalBoy]

yes. I installed Mac drivers. Everything else works perfectly well. Only the time is different. I set timezone as "+8:00 Shanghai, China" in OS X ;"+8:00 Beijing,China“ in Windows. :confused:

Do you go online enough when you're in Windows? I'm not sure, but I believe that's one of the ways Windows keeps your clock properly synced. I think browsers need your GMT+- time in order to work no? If not, then call Microsoft and yell at them. Tell them they can't even get the clock right:p

[DoFoT9]

this happens to me everytime i do it aswell.. i think the xp version changes the computers clock, and its just retarted. then u have to go fix it urself.. good one M$.:mad:

[hopejr]

The reason for the date difference is that Windows bases it's time directly off the system clock, without any time conversion. OS X sets the system clock to GMT and then converts for display (this behaviour has existed since the days of DOS). So after being in OS X, the clock is in GMT so is 8 hours behind when you're in Windows. If Windows then updates the time, and then you boot into OS X, the time is 8 hours ahead. It also causes other problems with Finder not display files properly.

To update the time in Windows, use the Update Time button in the Internet Time tab of the Date and Time Properties.

[DoFoT9]

hopejr i hope thats parellels!!!!! ;)

[M@lew]

The time bug is a common bug in Boot Camp. If you have the clocks on both Mac and Windows set-up to be synced with the internet, they'll sort each other out a few minutes after logging in.

[rogersmj]

It's not really a "bug", it's just a craptacular feature on Microsoft's part. That's the way Windows was designed to work, for some inexplicable reason. "Hey, I know...instead of actually doing time zone calculations, let's just change the hardware clock! Yeah. That'll be great, it'll screw up any other OS they have on the computer." Just one more instance of Microsoft trying to strong-arm consumers or otherwise make it as difficult as possible to run anything other than MS products.

[hopejr]

hopejr i hope thats parellels!!!!! ;)
Nope, it's boot camp.


It's not really a "bug", it's just a craptacular feature on Microsoft's part. That's the way Windows was designed to work, for some inexplicable reason. "Hey, I know...instead of actually doing time zone calculations, let's just change the hardware clock! Yeah. That'll be great, it'll screw up any other OS they have on the computer." Just one more instance of Microsoft trying to strong-arm consumers or otherwise make it as difficult as possible to run anything other than MS products.

It's the way it was back in the days when MS first started with DOS, before Windows was thought of. Hardly anyone thought about using GMT and converting back then (except in the UNIX world).

[bajiaomao]

Thanks guys.. guess all I can do is to sync the time in windows, and talk to Bill Gates:D

[Rodimus Prime]

It's not really a "bug", it's just a craptacular feature on Microsoft's part. That's the way Windows was designed to work, for some inexplicable reason. "Hey, I know...instead of actually doing time zone calculations, let's just change the hardware clock! Yeah. That'll be great, it'll screw up any other OS they have on the computer." Just one more instance of Microsoft trying to strong-arm consumers or otherwise make it as difficult as possible to run anything other than MS products.

You know I do not think it one of M$ ways of making thing difficult for others. Thinking so is just plain stupid. If you can think about it and get around the MS is evil you would see in some ways the hardware clock has its advatages over OSX way. 2nd how often do computers have more than one OS installed on them so this is hardly ever an issue plus it is a very simple solution to solve. It is all a matter of just changing the timezone setting and it never would be an issue. Set OSX to GMT and then it will be correct with the boot camp.
As for a reason the changing the system clock is it dates back to DOS so they been reusing that access. 2nd when one goes into a BIOS of their computer the date and time there are correct for the Timezone and removes that confusion. If it was set to GMT then it would be confusing when one is working on the system leval.

Neither way is wrong just eat way is different. Just M$ code for it is a more efficient code because it does not have to do any calculations to figure out the time. It just reads the system clock and they are good to go and back when they wrote that code it mattered not having any more lines of code than you need and it just been reused ever since then.

[topgunn]

I also fail to see how this is Microsofts fault. When I set the clocks in my house, I don't set them to GMT and then expect the clock to display the correct local time. Why should I expect my computer to? Microsoft has its OS's installed on a vast majority of computers. They should not have to accomodate the other 10-20%.

The simple fix is for Apple to have a little check box in the System Preference to use GMT based time or local time. Many (most) people would never think of changing it but those of us who go back and forth with Windows quite a bit would love it. Did you get that Apple?

[rogersmj]

You know I do not think it one of M$ ways of making thing difficult for others. Thinking so is just plain stupid.

I find it funny that you get so bent out of shape about my post and call me "stupid" yet you spell "MS" with a dollar sign. Cute. So you're allowed to have issues with Microsoft but I'm not?

I do think it is just MS taking shortcuts without regard. I'm a programmer by nature, and standardization appeals to me. GMT is a standard. It wouldn't have "cost" hardly anything extra to take the system clock + timezone offset. I don't think you need to get so up in arms about it and call me stupid because you disagree. THAT'S stupid.

[Sbrocket]

I also fail to see how this is Microsofts fault. When I set the clocks in my house, I don't set them to GMT and then expect the clock to display the correct local time. Why should I expect my computer to? Microsoft has its OS's installed on a vast majority of computers. They should not have to accomodate the other 10-20%.

The simple fix is for Apple to have a little check box in the System Preference to use GMT based time or local time. Many (most) people would never think of changing it but those of us who go back and forth with Windows quite a bit would love it. Did you get that Apple?

Or you could use the registry "hack" to enable the same functionality (reversed, of course) already built into Windows, but for some reason conveniently left out of a simple control panel. Basing the system clock off GMT seems to be the most sensible solution to me, but it doesn't really matter; Windows does it one way, *nix does it another way. There really is no conspiracy here, and there is no standardized way that either is violating.

You could also set up a simple LaunchDaemon to run on startup that performs "sudo ntpdate -u" to set the system clock back to GMT. Just another option.

By the way, your analogy between a computer's system clock and a conventional clock is invalid. What difference does it make if the hardware clock is set to GMT and the OS converts to your local time zone? You only ever see the correct local time, not the GMT hardware time.

[Wolfpup]

I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I don't see how this is their problem either (or Apple's for that matter).

I don't think any approach is truly right or wrong, but personally I think it's nuts to set a system clock to GMT and then do a conversion. The comparison to doing that to a wall clock is apt. There's no reason for that extra complexity. The point of the system clock is to HAVE THE CURRENT TIME WHERE YOU ARE.

I'm sure there's some fantastic reason to use GMT instead, but for normal users, having the system clock set to the actual time makes more sense and prevents wasting time on a conversion.

[CalBoy]

I'm sure there's some fantastic reason to use GMT instead, but for normal users, having the system clock set to the actual time makes more sense and prevents wasting time on a conversion.

Well, some of those reasons include having a standard time throughout the world. As an American, it saddens me how most Americans look at you with a funny face when they encounter "GMT." I think it makes a lot more sense for it to be set up to GMT, with a "-x" selector. That's what OS X does. I get my local time and the computer is set up in a better way. BTW, for those who don't know, California is GMT-8 during the winter and GMT-7 during the summer (daylight savings).

[Wolfpup]

Well, some of those reasons include having a standard time throughout the world. As an American, it saddens me how most Americans look at you with a funny face when they encounter "GMT." I think it makes a lot more sense for it to be set up to GMT, with a "-x" selector. That's what OS X does. I get my local time and the computer is set up in a better way. BTW, for those who don't know, California is GMT-8 during the winter and GMT-7 during the summer (daylight savings).

Why is it better though? For the average user, the computer is just having to do an extra, meaningless step.

[CalBoy]

Why is it better though? For the average user, the computer is just having to do an extra, meaningless step.

Isn't better because then every computer that the OS is installed on can be coordinated based on a single time? Even for the average user, this has advantages. It's easier to know one standard procedure for measurement. One of the reasons why the metric system should be used over imperial/standard (although I personally like teaspoons and tablespoons:p)

[Sbrocket]

Why is it better though? For the average user, the computer is just having to do an extra, meaningless step.

Its better because GMT is a standardized measure of time from which all other time zones around the world are derived by adding or subtracting a certain number of hours. It would seem prudent practice to have the computer's clock set to the standard (GMT) and simply convert for local time depending on the operating system, so that it could be always assumed that the computer's clock is set to GMT. Of course there is no right or wrong way and the average user doesn't really care one way or the other, but its cleaner from a programming point of view and really has no effect on the end-user in terms of computer performance. Adding a number to another number isn't going to cripple your machine.

[Wolfpup]

Isn't better because then every computer that the OS is installed on can be coordinated based on a single time? Even for the average user, this has advantages. It's easier to know one standard procedure for measurement. One of the reasons why the metric system should be used over imperial/standard (although I personally like teaspoons and tablespoons:p)

That same logic can be used to say it's better to set the system clock to the local time. And it's the same time units, so the comparison to metric isn't really accurate.

Its better because GMT is a standardized measure of time from which all other time zones around the world are derived by adding or subtracting a certain number of hours. It would seem prudent practice to have the computer's clock set to the standard (GMT) and simply convert for local time depending on the operating system, so that it could be always assumed that the computer's clock is set to GMT. Of course there is no right or wrong way and the average user doesn't really care one way or the other, but its cleaner from a programming point of view and really has no effect on the end-user in terms of computer performance. Adding a number to another number isn't going to cripple your machine.

No, but what does it get you? As someone mentioned, we don't set our clocks to GMT. There's no reason for that added complexity. While I'm sure there's SOME application that would benefit from it on a PC, I have no idea what it is, and it sure doesn't benefit the normal user.

[iBlue]

little more to it than that. read up on GMT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMT) if you'd like.

[sorryiwasdreami]

Great arguments here, but is there an actual solution for the time synchronization problem?

[M@lew]

Great arguments here, but is there an actual solution for the time synchronization problem?

Sync both partitions with the internet.

[Rodimus Prime]

No, but what does it get you? As someone mentioned, we don't set our clocks to GMT. There's no reason for that added complexity. While I'm sure there's SOME application that would benefit from it on a PC, I have no idea what it is, and it sure doesn't benefit the normal user.

the area that having the system clock be set to local time would help out the most is Network/Server Admins. Their are of nice little things that can be done in the BIOS settings and several of them are time based and because it is in the BIOS is has no way to access the OS clock only the system clock and well in the BIOS their is no way to set the time zone because every line of code matters and for the time zone settings that is a lot of extra lines of code for the BIOS.

Also there are other things dealing with some logging that use that system clock. When setting up those things it is a heck of a lot easier to use local time and not GMT and then when DST has to be set they do not have to go into the BIOS again and change all those settings.

[gblandst]

Sync both partitions with the internet.

This is a poor solution for the following reasons:
1. An incorrect clock time is guaranteed between startup and synchronization, and synchronization schedules on both OSes are not readily configurable. Windows waits a full week between syncs, and OS X's schedule is not even revealed to the user.
2. Windows firewall settings can interfere with time synchronization, causing it to fail. Guaranteeing this functionality would require either permanently disabling the firewall or researching the ports used for the protocol and configuring the firewall to permanently open them. (The protocol is NTP and the port is UDP 123 in case anyone cares.)
3. This solution requires a connection to the Internet at all times. For desktops this would rarely be an inconvenience, but for laptops it is unacceptable.

Ultimately, synchronization seems intended for initial setup and to correct very small errors in timing that would accrue to an observable difference over weeks or months. Missing a sync now and then should not be cause for annoyance. It was never designed to constantly update a completely unreliable system clock.

To solve the problem, my initial thought was to set the OS X Time Zone to UTC (=GMT=Zulu) to fool it into displaying the system clock time as the local time. You'd have to turn off the Internet time sync in OS X. This makes the OS X clock a slave to Windows's--a bit like agreeing with an idiot just to make him stop talking. It's far from ideal, but it might help you if the following doesn't.

The original poster referred to a registry setting. It's discussed here (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006072022590888) and also at this site (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html) after much tiresome discussion of how an operating system ought to do things. Here's the modification:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
"RealTimeIsUniversal"=dword:1

You can save the quoted text as a .reg file for use in Windows XP. There are disclaimers in the source links that say this setting is not supported and may be buggy. However, it passed my 10-minute test, my clocks are in sync, so it's good enough for me right now. If it starts messing up your computer, just change the 1 to a 0 and run the .reg again.

[fromwalking]

think out of the box

[01] write a script that sycronises online every 5 min and manifests as a screensaver.
[02] like for example a Rolex screensaver (*)
[03] thus giving you the correct time!
[04] all the time!
[05] with Rolex(*) certified precision!

Of course the computer used needs an internetconnection!
For laptops and other systems that turn off sometimes:
automatically sync on startup as well. So the script runs all the time.
when the computer is turned on is automatically starts up.
It overrides existing screensavers.
It overrides all energy settings (which are useless anyway, eventually)!
It overwrites the systemclock.

Make this script work on pc systems, apple osx and linux
software wise

Make this script.

Possibilities:
-make it downloadable on iTunes ($20 a piece) -> [.dmg/.exe]
-sell it to Apple (standard delivery on OSX Leopard DeLuxe - propose this)
-sell it to Microsoft (standard delivery on Windows Vista Home edition DeLuxe)
-sell it to Rolex or IWC, or Breitling, ... highest bidder. (*)

Result:
Be rich.

(*) dependent variables