Fixing Remote Desktop connection problems when resuming computer from sleep after daylight savings time changes

In the Europe and U.S., daylight savings time is something you need to be aware of–at least twice a year. Nowadays, computers automatically update their clocks, so usually there isn't anything you need to do.

However, there's a little gotcha associated with these automatic time changes and Remote Desktop (RDP connections). Here's what happened to me. Take a Windows 8 development machine joined to a domain, which is put to sleep after the day is done. I connect to this machine from my main development machine using Remote Desktop, as it doesn't have a keyboard/mouse/monitor attached.

But, if the daylight savings time change kicks in *while your computer is sleeping*, you cannot again connect to it via Remote Desktop. Instead, you will get the following error message while trying to connect:

"Remote Desktop cannot verify the identity of the remote computer
because there is a time or date difference between your computer
and the remote computer. Make sure your computer's clock is set
to the correct time, and then try connecting again. If the problem
occurs again, contact your network administrator or the owner of
the remote computer."

There are two fixes to this problem: first, you can try to connect to the machine with its IP address (instead of the computer name), and secondly, you can simply reboot the destination machine. Rebooting/restarting is the long-term solution, but for the short-term, you can use the machine's IP address.

Keywords: how to connect to remote computer after daylight time changes; winter time; summer time