time different between Mac OS X and Windows XP

[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 and also at this site 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]

Syncronisation Solution

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