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Optimizing Your Computers Date and Time Settings
Your computer should always be set to the current date and time. If it isn’t, you may
have problems with misfiled documents or correspondence. Incorrect time settings
could also cause you to miss appointments or meetings.
Setting your computer’s date and time
You can manually set your computer’s date and time by completing the following steps:
1. On the desktop taskbar, click the clock in the System Tray and then click
“Change date and time settings.” This displays the Date and Time Settings dia-
log box.
2. To change the date and time, click “Change date and time.” Use the options
shown in Figure 5-16 to set the system date and time as appropriate, and then
click OK.
3. To change the time zone, click Change Time Zone. Use the options shown in
Figure 5-17 to set the time zone for the computer. Some time zones within the
United States and abroad use daylight saving time. If you select a time zone
where this is applicable, you’ll be able to select the “Automatically adjust clock
for Daylight Saving Time” checkbox. Use daylight saving time or clear this
checkbox so that daylight saving time is not used.
Figure 5-16. Setting the system time
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Chapter 5: Customizing Your Computer’s Hardware Devices
4. When you configure your computer to use daylight saving time, the Date and
Time dialog box tells you the date and time when daylight saving time starts and
ends, as well as how the click will be adjusted. If you want to be reminded one
week before this occurs, select the “Remind me one week before this change
occurs” checkbox.
5. Click OK to save your settings.
Displaying time in additional time zones
You can configure your computer to display time in up to three time zones by com-
pleting the following steps:
1. On the desktop taskbar, click the clock in the System Tray and then click
“Change date and time settings.” This displays the Date and Time Settings dia-
log box.
2. Click the Additional Clocks tab, shown in Figure 5-18.
3. To configure a second clock, select the first “Show this clock” checkbox. Use the
related selection list to choose the desired time zone and then type a display
name for this time zone, such as
West Coast Time.
4. To configure a third clock, select the second “Show this clock” checkbox. Use
the related selection list to choose the desired time zone and then type a display
name for this time zone, such as
Paris Time.
5. Click OK to save your settings.
Once you’ve configured additional clocks, moving the pointer over the clock icon in
the System Tray displays the time in each configured location. The computer’s
default system time is listed as Local Time.
Figure 5-17. Configuring daylight saving time
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Keeping your computers clock synchronized
To keep system time in close synchronization with world time, you’ll want to use
Internet time. At the office, Internet time is probably configured automatically by
your organization’s administrators.
At home, you can enable or disable Internet time by completing the following steps:
1. On the desktop taskbar, click the clock in the System Tray and then click “Change
date and time settings.” This displays the Date and Time Settings dialog box.
2. Select the Internet Time tab and then click “Change settings.” This displays the
Internet Time Settings dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-19.
3. To enable Internet time, select “Synchronize with an Internet time server” and
then select the time server you want to use. Several default time servers are
listed, including time.windows.com and time.nist.gov. You can select one of these
or type in the fully qualified domain name of another time server to use.
4. To disable Internet time, clear the “Synchronize with an Internet time server”
checkbox.
5. To update and synchronize the computer time, click “Update now.”
6. Click OK to save your settings.
Figure 5-18. Displaying additional clocks

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