Why isn’t my time zone highlighted on the world map?

Date:August 22, 2003 / year-entry #30
Tags:history;time
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030822-00/?p=42823
Comments:    35
Summary:In the original release of Windows 95, you could change your time zone by clicking on the map, and the time zone you selected would highlight. Similarly, you could change your Region Settings by clicking on the world map. This was one of those little touches that made Windows 95 that much more fun to...

In the original release of Windows 95, you could change your time zone by clicking on the map, and the time zone you selected would highlight. Similarly, you could change your Region Settings by clicking on the world map. This was one of those little touches that made Windows 95 that much more fun to use.

But we had to remove those features within months of release, even though we based both of the maps on the borders officially recognized by the United Nations.

In early 1995, a border war broke out between Peru and Ecuador and the Peruvian government complained to Microsoft that the border was incorrectly placed. Of course, if we complied and moved the border northward, we'd get an equally angry letter from the Ecuadorian government demanding that we move it back. So we removed the feature altogether.

The time zone map met a similar fate. The Indian government threatened to ban all Microsoft software from the country because we assigned a disputed region to Pakistan in the time zone map. (Any map that depicts an unfavorable border must bear a government stamp warning the end-user that the borders are incorrect. You can't stamp software.) We had to make a special version of Windows 95 for them.

Geopolitics is a very sensitive subject.

Comments (35)
  1. andy says:
    August 22, 2003 at 11:15 pm

    Hah, Hillarious. Why can’t we all just get along?

    Nice bit of trivia there, thanks.

  2. Steve says:
    August 23, 2003 at 3:32 pm

    Raymond –

    Are you the guy who wrote the "stupid app of the day" emails during W’95 development?

  3. Prasenjeet Dutta says:
    August 23, 2003 at 7:18 pm

    The newer Redhat graphical anaconda installers allow a fairly cool, and geo-politically neutral, way to select the timezone: the mouse snaps to the closest city available in tz database as you move over a world map. Always wished Windows had that feature.

  4. Samuel Neff says:
    August 24, 2003 at 8:22 pm

    I honestly always wondered where that feature went. Glad to finally know!

  5. Seth Morabito says:
    August 25, 2003 at 5:43 pm

    I did always wonder what happened to that feature. It’s a shame it disappeared, it was really a nice little touch. Thanks for clearing it up.

  6. dave says:
    August 26, 2003 at 11:05 am

    Hi – Maybe I’m being a little dense, and I dont really remember the map – But why would it have to show political boundries for setting the time? Couldnt it just be topological with the time boundries drawn on it?

    dave

  7. Brooks Moses says:
    August 26, 2003 at 1:48 pm

    Why? Because time boundaries follow political boundaries, in most cases. The disputed India/Pakistan border is certainly one of these.

  8. w.h. says:
    August 26, 2003 at 2:02 pm

    There was at least one case where a terrorist car bomb in Israel/Palestine went off at the wrong time because the Israelies and the palestinians don’t change from standard to daylight savings and vice versa at the same date.

  9. evilbunny says:
    August 27, 2003 at 9:20 am

    I thought that car bomb thing was a joke, and ended up being an urban myth

  10. Ziktar says:
    August 27, 2003 at 6:29 pm

    I launched the initial release of Windows 95 on one of my test machines here, and the Regional Settings map isn’t clickable. My office mate (a Peruvian…) is trying to say that his country is innocent. So, I’m wondering, was the Regional Settings map only clickable on the Release Candidate then?

  11. richgi says:
    August 28, 2003 at 1:57 am

    Isn’t this just a matter of localization? Provide a different world map for each country or region, showing how they see the world – just like language or currency symbol.

  12. Raymond Chen says:
    August 28, 2003 at 4:09 pm

    We may have had time to pull the Peru/Ecuador issue in time for RTM. I know we didn’t get the India/Pakistan one in time. If your officemate doubts me, you can go to the Wall Street Journal, August 24, 1995,
    "A Dispute Over India’s Borders Had Microsoft Mapping a Retreat". The clickable map was pulled for all future releases because who knows what country will get upset next. (Also, because localizing bitmaps is really expensive.)

  13. Ziktar says:
    August 28, 2003 at 8:43 pm

    Thanks, that’s what I needed to hear.

    By the way, love the site, it’s quite entertaining.

  14. George Tsiokos says:
    November 7, 2003 at 10:25 pm

    I live in a country that does not have a problem with the borders. ENABLE THE “CLICK ON MAP” FEATURE IN ALL COUNTRIES WHO HAVE COMPLETELY UNDISPUTED BORDERS. —- duh

  15. Raymond Chen says:
    November 13, 2003 at 5:14 pm

    Perhaps the border isn’t under dispute today, but maybe at some point in the future there’s a war and the borders change and now Windows is banned because it shows the old borders. (Did you know that the border between Connecticut and Rhode Island is under dispute?)

  16. George Tsiokos says:
    December 13, 2003 at 4:54 pm

    Perhaps whats needed is a "web service" provided by Microsoft in which Windows connects and receives the most current undisputed borders on a daily/weekly basis.

  17. Andrew says:
    February 19, 2004 at 3:55 pm

    I hope you’re joking, George. That idea is insane!

    Still, I did notice the absence of this feature in Windows 98 and above. How sad. I really loved the way it would scroll smoothly to whatever timezone you clicked, and ease into its new position. A really nifty piece of UI.

  18. Wes McGee says:
    April 2, 2004 at 10:34 pm

    …but you do realize that since the company took out the ability to set time zones by using the map, that map is now useless and taking up valuable screen space… or at least making the date/time applet use one tab-sheet more than necessary. You can probably stick the time zone drop-down right underneath the calendar where it currently has a static message telling you what time zone you’re currently using.

  19. Will says:
    April 12, 2004 at 9:14 am

    I really liked that map, always did wonder what happened to it. <sigh>

  20. The Old New Thing says:
    June 11, 2004 at 12:49 am
  21. Raymond Chen says:
    June 27, 2004 at 9:14 pm

    Commenting on this entry has been closed.

  22. Larry Osterman's WebLog says:
    January 26, 2005 at 3:26 pm
  23. Larry Osterman's WebLog says:
    January 26, 2005 at 3:48 pm
  24. Larry Osterman's WebLog says:
    January 26, 2005 at 11:55 pm
  25. GregSadetsky.com » Blog Archive » Business on the tubes gone wrong: Extreme CIA World Factbook Makeover says:
    August 30, 2006 at 4:14 am

    PingBack from http://gregsadetsky.com/?p=29

  26. Anonymous says:
    September 24, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    PingBack from http://news.naikmichel.com/2006/09/24/one-feature-windows-95-had-that-vista-wont%e2%80%a6/

  27. What is wrong with corporate America « Camera Lucida says:
    September 24, 2006 at 7:49 pm

    PingBack from http://cameralucida.wordpress.com/2006/09/24/what-is-wrong-with-corporate-america/

  28. Grandes Poches » links for 2006-09-25 says:
    September 25, 2006 at 4:24 am

    PingBack from http://grandespoches.net/blog/blog/links-for-2006-09-25

  29. blogu’ lu’ alex » One feature Windows 95 had that Vista won’t… says:
    September 25, 2006 at 7:47 am

    PingBack from http://blog.autotuning.ro/archives/134

  30. Larry Osterman's WebLog says:
    September 29, 2006 at 11:59 am

    Most of our customers (and most professional software developers) don’t really understand how much is…

  31. Net Crap (9/25) « Archive « Musings of a Chicagoan says:
    October 12, 2006 at 11:29 pm

    PingBack from http://windycitymike.com/2006/09/25/net-crap-925/

  32. The Old New Thing says:
    October 27, 2006 at 10:00 am

    Oopsie.

  33. La vita è un'illusione says:
    October 27, 2006 at 2:49 pm

    The Poland Sea Provate a fare doppio click sull’orologio nella barra di Windows del vostro PC (se ha XP) e selezionare il pannello &quot;Fusi orari&quot;. Nella cartina del mondo che viene disegnata in quella schermata al posto della Polonia c’&egra

  34. .:SevenHeaven:. » Windows e la geografia says:
    October 27, 2006 at 5:04 pm

    PingBack from http://www.sevenheaven.org/wordpress/2006/windows-e-la-geografia/

  35. Programming stuff says:
    November 18, 2006 at 5:19 am

    A few days ago Elliotte Rusty Harold blogged about The Downside of Localization. He gave the example of the Xerces XML parser and how error messages are now available in various languages. Mr Harold correctly recognized that this could introduce a new

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