>
> Currently ZTreeWin uses the (IMHO really bad) Command Prompt way of
> converting file timestamps to dates and times. What this does is show a
> different time (and date if close to midnight) for files if you currently
> have DST in force than otherwise. Note that's when you look at the file,
> not when the timestamp was written.
>
> I can't imagine why I'd ever want the time/date for a file to be
> adjusted depending on when I view it. So what I'd like to propose is an
> option to use the Windows method of converting timestamps for display.
>

I think this problem arises because different file systems use different conventions for time stamping. FAT uses the current local time. NTFS uses UTC (that is, on disk the file time is always Greenwich Mean Time without daylight savings). I am not sure what conventions the various network drive file systems use.

With NTFS it is essential to convert the file time when displaying the file to the user. And it is natural to take account of DST, otherwise if you save a file at say 10am in August, it will immediately show as 9am. I move from the UK to France and back (1 hour time difference) and maintain two large hard disks syncing between them (using a smaller portable hard drive). The fact that NTFS uses UTC means that files are not unnecessarily copied from one disk to the other. With FAT SDcards I have to be careful, as saving the same file from the French drive will give a time one hour ahead of what I would get if I saved it from the UK drive.

I do find it strange that on your system command and explorere use different conventions for making this conversion. On my system (Windows XP) they show identical times at least for local disks. I wonder when the method was changed.

It would also be useful to know what file system you are storing you files on. Is it a network drive? In that case the problem may lie in the way the network transmits file dates to windows.

Oliver