British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario stopped changing their clocks on Nov 1, 2026. If your Windows PC has old time zone rules, or its location setting is off, it can fall back an hour anyway, or show US time. Here's how to check and fix it.
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Go to Settings › Windows Update, click Check for updates, install everything and restart. Microsoft added new time zones for BC, Alberta and Manitoba in its October 2026 update.
Go to Settings › Time & language › Date & time, switch on Set time automatically, then click Sync now.
On the same screen, either switch on Set time zone automatically (this needs Settings › Privacy & security › Location turned on), or choose it yourself: (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (British Columbia), (UTC-06:00) Mountain Time (Alberta) or (UTC-05:00) Manitoba. These only appear after the update.
In Outlook, open Settings, then Calendar, and set your calendar time zone to the same new zone. Meetings you organized before the change may need to be opened and saved again.
Restart and reload this page. The clock check at the top should say your device is ready.
| If you're in | Your clock should be | Pick this city if asked |
|---|---|---|
| Most of BC | UTC−7 all year | Vancouver |
| Alberta, BC's East Kootenay (Cranbrook, Fernie), the NWT | UTC−6 all year | Edmonton or Calgary |
| Manitoba, northwestern Ontario (Kenora) | UTC−5 all year | Winnipeg |
Your Windows PC doesn't look up the rules online. It carries a built-in rulebook of every time zone, and it only learns about changes like British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario dropping daylight saving time when that rulebook gets updated. Two things go wrong:
The rulebook is old. If the device hasn't been updated, it still expects your area to "fall back" on Nov 1, 2026, and your clock will be an hour behind until March.
It thinks you're somewhere else. With location-based time zone turned off, your Windows PC keeps whatever time zone it last had, or takes a guess from your mobile network or Wi-Fi. After a trip to Seattle, or near a border like Lloydminster, Creston or Kenora, that guess is often wrong.
Older devices that no longer get updates may never learn the new rules. As a stopgap, choose (UTC-07:00) Arizona for BC, (UTC-06:00) Saskatchewan for Alberta, or (UTC-05:00) Bogota, Lima, Quito for Manitoba. In other words, pick a place that's already on the right time all year:
Your clock will be right, but the city name won't be, and calendar apps may show some meeting times strangely. Some workplaces ask staff not to do this, so check with your IT team first, and switch back to your real city once an update arrives.
The new zones arrive with the October 2026 Windows update. Check for updates, install everything and restart. Windows 10 stopped getting regular updates in October 2025, so older PCs may never get them. Use the last-resort option on this page instead.
Yukon is UTC−7 all year, the same as BC, but use the British Columbia zone if you have it. Some workplaces specifically ask staff not to switch zones, so follow your IT team’s advice.
British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and northwestern Ontario stopped changing their clocks. Most of BC is UTC−7 all year, Alberta and the NWT are UTC−6, and Manitoba is UTC−5. Read the full explainer.