Index: django/conf/__init__.py
===================================================================
--- django/conf/__init__.py	(revision 4462)
+++ django/conf/__init__.py	(working copy)
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 """
 
 import os
+import time
 from django.conf import global_settings
 
 ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE = "DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"
@@ -105,8 +106,12 @@
                 new_installed_apps.append(app)
         self.INSTALLED_APPS = new_installed_apps
 
-        # move the time zone info into os.environ
-        os.environ['TZ'] = self.TIME_ZONE
+        # If time doesn't have tzset (Windows environment), changing the local
+        # timezone environment variable causes the timezone in Python to be set
+        # to UTC no matter what self.TIME_ZONE is.
+        if hasattr(time, 'tzset'):
+            # move the time zone info into os.environ
+            os.environ['TZ'] = self.TIME_ZONE
 
     def get_all_members(self):
         return dir(self)
Index: django/conf/project_template/settings.py
===================================================================
--- django/conf/project_template/settings.py	(revision 4462)
+++ django/conf/project_template/settings.py	(working copy)
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 # Local time zone for this installation. All choices can be found here:
 # http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/datetime-keywords.html#DATETIME-TIMEZONE-SET-TABLE
+# If running in a Windows environment this must be set to the same as your system time zone.
 TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago'
 
 # Language code for this installation. All choices can be found here:
Index: docs/settings.txt
===================================================================
--- docs/settings.txt	(revision 4462)
+++ docs/settings.txt	(working copy)
@@ -827,6 +827,12 @@
 environment variable, and it'll be up to you to ensure your processes are
 running in the correct environment.
 
+Note to Windows users: Django can not reliably use alternate time zones in a
+Windows environment. When running Django on Windows this variable must be set
+to match the system timezone. You can read more about that in this `bug report (#2315)`_
+
+.. _bug report (#2315): http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/2315
+
 URL_VALIDATOR_USER_AGENT
 ------------------------