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Window XPe DST problem likened to amnesia
Apr. 26, 2007

A posting on the Windows XP Embedded team blog at MSDN provides a cute metaphor for an irksome problem. It compares certain Daylight Savings Time (DST) problems experienced with Windows XP Embedded (XPe) devices to the dilemma experienced by Phil Connors in the movie, Groundhog Day.

Remember how Bill Murray, in the role of Phil Connors, wakes up every morning on the same day, Groundhog Day? As XPe team member Mark Chamberlain sees it: "The story plot revolved around Phil's frustrated attempts to return to normal time and a normal life." And so it has been with a little problem with DST in Windows XP Embedded. When rebooted, such devices can "think" it is a day earlier or a day later, or two days earlier or two days later, or...

Two previous articles on WindowsForDevices.com have addressed the need for a DST patch for XPe. One provided information regarding the origin of the problem in a U.S. government regulation, and how to obtain the patch that fixes the problem, while the other offered additional tips on implementing the fix.

Now, Chamberlain has written a three-paragraph, technical explanation of an amnesia-like DST problem that can manifest itself on Windows XP Embedded devices due to registry entry information being lost on reboots when EWF or FBWF are used, which he compares to the plot of Groundhog Day:
Windows XP Embedded Devices using EWF-RAM to protect the system volume can experience a similar amnesia problem during Daylight Savings Time (DST) transitions. Each time a device that is so configured reboots, the system forgets (by design) all state changes to the system volume. This unfortunately includes registry changes that indicate whether DST has already occurred. Meanwhile, the BIOS CMOS memory on the motherboard faithfully remembers the time and date.

When Windows XPE boots up and discovers that the date has switched into official DST, it automatically adds an hour to the time of day and then sets a registry entry so it can remember that it has "fallen forward." Unfortunately that registry entry information is lost upon subsequent boot when EWF or FBWF are used. The next time the device reboots, it will increment the time of day another hour, because the (registry-based) knowledge about having previously switched into DST is lost. As a result, there will be a creeping forward of time. Note that if the system image was created with DST turned on, the time of day will decrement backward an hour at a time, after switching out of DST (into winter).

The EXE file on the MSDN site is a care package that offers two possible workarounds to this problem. Please read the contained README.TXT for details. NOTE: This workaround has not been successfully tested for use with FBWF.
It's nice to know that understanding Chamberlain's explanation is not required to fix the problem -- just install the patch. Further details may be available in the discussion associated with the blog posting, which located here.



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