<p>I've been wondering what exactly are the principles of how the two properties work. I know the second one is universal and basically doesn't deal with time zones, but can someone explain in detail how they work and which one should be used in what scenario?</p>

DateTime.UtcNow
tells you the date and time as it would be in Coordinated Universal Time, which is also called the Greenwich Mean Time time zone - basically like it would be if you were in London England, but not during the summer.
DateTime.Now
gives the date and time as it would appear to someone in your current locale.
I'd recommend using
```
DateTime.Now
```
whenever you're displaying a date to a human being - that way they're comfortable with the value they see - it's something that they can easily compare to what they see on their watch or clock. Use
```
DateTime.UtcNow
```
when you want to store dates or use them for later calculations that way (in a client-server model) your calculations don't become confused by clients in different time zones from your server or from each other.