Microsoft is finally going to support leap seconds with the next update to Windows 10, coming this fall, and on Windows Server 2019. While leap seconds is not a concept that is known to many end users, it is still a big deal because new government regulations from the US and EU require all devices to have support for it. Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 will become the first operating systems with support for leap seconds as the updates are pushed out.

For people unfamiliar with the concept of leap seconds, it occurs every 18 months and results in an extra second. The extra second is added to UTC in order to adjust for the irregularities in the earth’s rotation and keep it synced with the mean solar time. You can read more about leap seconds on Wikipedia if you wish to get more information about it.

To get a better idea of how this will work on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, you can take a look at the GIF.

Currently, the Windows clock does not count leap seconds and jumps directly to 17:00:00 from 16:59:59. After the update, the clock will go from 16:59:59 > 16:59:60 > 17:00:00.

The extra second will also be a part of Precision Time Control which is one of the many improvements being added to Windows Server 2019. A list of 10 networking features was posted on Microsoft’s Networking Blog which showcases new additions and improvements being added to the upcoming server OS from the company.

Source: Microsoft Networking Blog via Thurrott