Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog

(cross posted from Announcement- Changes to daylight saving time in Morocco, earlier than later on September 1, 2008)

We recently received news reports (via this link, in French) that the ministry for the Modernization of the public sector in Morocco issued a notice that the country has changed the end date to daylight saving time (DST, aka Summer Time, Heuer d'été) in the country.  At midnight (0:00h) between August 31 and September 1, 2008, the country will move the clocks back one hour.  This is several weeks earlier than the original scheduled change between September 27 and September 28. (For more on the change, see also the article posted here.)

Please note that this may present challenges for Moroccan consumers, industries and enterprises, and IT Pros may be inconvenienced independent of the architecture they support.  We believe that due to the late notice of this change with little advance warning, there may be impacts to businesses and end users in Morocco and even some impacts to businesses and end users referring to the time zone setting outside the country. Such a timetable does businesses and infrastructure in Morocco and nearby regions to make the change, nor does it allow the worldwide community to make the needed changes to their systems and infrastructure.

At the moment, Microsoft recommends that customers who have applied the August 2008 DST & TZ update to the Windows OS, KB951072 should uncheck deselect "Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time" in the Date and Time control panel after the change takes place on Sept 1, as noted at right. Additional guidance will published this week on the Microsoft daylight saving and time zone site.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, Morocco

http://tinyurl.com/5mnnen

The 'Hot Topics for Daylight Saving Time changes' page at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_hottopics has been updated:

• Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update for Windows now available (revised August 12, 2008)
  The most recent cumulative updates to daylight saving time (DST) and world time zones (TZ) for Windows are now available for supported versions of the Windows operating system. The cumulative updates have been released to the Microsoft Download Center. These updates support versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

Technorati Profile

The most recent cumulative updates to daylight saving time (DST) and world time zones (TZ) for Windows are now available for supported versions of the Windows operating system. The cumulative updates have been released to the Microsoft Download Center. These updates support versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. For information that details the changes in the cumulative updates, visit the following Microsoft Web site: KB 951072, August 2008 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems

(More details are available now at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_hottopics.  This information has been cross-posted to 'Available now: the latest Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone update for Windows.')

The cumulative updates are also available on the Windows Update site beginning August 12,2008, as part of the normal update process for Windows.

Consumers and small businesses may want to use Microsoft Update to download and install updates that are available from Windows Update or wait for the latest update to automatically install on your computer via Windows Automatic Update.
For more information about the service that is provided by Microsoft Update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/updates/mu.mspx

System administrators and IT professionals may download the latest packages for distribution to their users.

Microsoft product teams are moving to a semi-annual DST and TZ update schedule, which follows the Windows regular schedule for publishing newly legislated DST rules and time zone updates. These annual "Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Updates" will be released in November/December for the coming calendar year; a semi-annual update will be released in July/August, as needed. Other Microsoft products that are affected may also schedule updates to accommodate some of these changes. For the latest DST updates on each of these products, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist

For more information about all the DST and TZ updates that have been made to date, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
914387 How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST.

As noted at http://www.afrol.com/articles/29955 late last month (July 23, 2008) and in L'Express newspaper, the government of Mauritius has decided to adopt Summer Time (as it's known in Europe, aka daylight saving time) in the island nation of over 1 million.   According to the announcements we've seen, the country will begin recognizing Summer Time in October of this year.

We suggest that customers and partners use Central European Time (CET) which in Windows appears as (GMT+1 Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris) for Mauritius. This time zone matches to the DST rules being adopted by Mauritius and it matches the governments stated intent of being "aligned with that in Europe and the United States of America."

[Updated 081808: We are revising the guidance here due to an error in our analysis.] 

As, Mauritius will 'spring forward' one hour forward at to UTC+5:00 on October 26, 2008, and then fall back an hour to UTC+4:00 on March 29, 2009. We will follow the lead of the country's decision to follow "closely to tourist and business markets in Europe." 

We will post guidance to inform customers that they may use 'Abu Dhabi, Muscat' for Mauritius, and then on Oct 26, set their clocks manually ahead an hour as a work around, as we recommended for Argentina.  We are considering options for how we will address the change in Mauritius in our December 2008 DST & Time Zone update. At present, Windows won't update the time zone currently in place by adding the name of this country.  Official information will be posted to the Microsoft DST & TZ Site, specifically on the DST Hot Topics and Latest News page.

[end update]

We will issue more formal alerts on this news item this month as we have done for other countries that made late-breaking changes.  Note that other DST and time zone changes, the decision in Mauritius may impact customers doing business in and with the affected region. 

As noted previously (and included on our Hot Topics site), Microsoft will continue to adhere to the published release cadence and issue the next update to DST rules and time zones in the December release.  We will provide updates on the Microsoft DST & Time Zone site, issue appropriate HPPs, and work with the subs to provide localized guidance based upon the work done for Argentina.  We should start on this effort now to allow customers enough time and information to ensure that they make the appropriate plans for their orgs. 

More details cross-posted in this advisory post: 'Daylight saving time coming to an island nation near you: Mauritius changes in October.'

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Mauritius.

Daylight Saving Time changes in Morocco and Pakistan (revised May 23, 2008)

Microsoft has learned of a change to the observance of Daylight Saving Time (DST, aka regionally as Summer Time) in Morocco and Pakistan that could impact customers using local time zones.  We have news that Morocco will switch from GMT to GMT+1:00 beginning on June 1, 2008, and that the Pakistan Government will change from GMT +5:00 to GMT +6:00 June 1, 2008, at 12 midnight (local time).  These changes may impact customers and partners in the regions who use local time zones, including entities engaged in business in or with the region. 

Unfortunately, due to the short notice provided for these late breaking changes, we do not expect that product groups will provide updates incorporating these changes.  The Windows organization plans to include these updates in the next release of the 2008 Cumulative Time Zone Update for Windows, scheduled to release in July/August 2008.

For manual remediation of the Microsoft Windows XP operating systems in mainstream support, Microsoft will provide an updating to the following DST and time zone manual update article with the changes for Morocco and Pakistan:

How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387

We will publish additional information and links here as available.  For general information, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/time.

We've also updated the information in the KB to indicate that Iraq no longer observes DST.

(cross posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/)

Microsoft has created guidance and specific product hotfixes (where applicable) in response to news reports that indicate Iraq will not recognize or utilize daylight saving time in 2008.  IT professionals and systems administrators should review their systems and installations, and determine if any users or systems will be impacted by this change not to use DST in Iraq this year.  Microsoft is recognizing this change and provides the guidance to customers and partners should they have systems that may be impacted by this change in Iraq, as noted on the Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone FAQs Blog at http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007/archive/2008/03/25/advisory-potential-dst-change-in-iraq-technical-guidance.aspx

Microsoft recommends that customers with operations in the affected area review the impact and, if necessary, follow the guidance and steps as outlined in the product update guidance currently available.  Generally, this includes application of product updates and rebasing calendar items as outlined in this document.

Microsoft has created product updates in anticipation of the change in Daylight Saving Time (DST) rules in Iraq.  The following table provides information about product updates and supporting documentation that has been released for this potential DST change. 

¹In the December 2007 set of time zone update roll ups, Microsoft Exchange has updated Baghdad (Arabic) time zone, as per the Iraqi government’s original notification, as noted in KB940368. Given the Iraqi governments recent DST change Microsoft will provide an Exchange update and new guidance will be published for remediation. No changes were made to the CDO 1.2.1 and MAPI CDO 1.2.1 (KB945835) and as such will require no additional updates.

1.        In order to update Windows desktop and server operating systems, we recommend administrators change the time zone information for Iraq’s Baghdad (Arabic) time zone that is stored in the registry to reflect the extension of the daylight saving time. Please read the section “How to update Windows Servers and Desktop Operating Systems” for details on the recommended steps.

2.        Please do not manually adjust the machine’s clock. This will cause adverse effects on your environment and it is not supported by Microsoft.

3.        Before you apply the changes on Windows Operating Systems to reflect the new DST rules for the Baghdad (Arabic) time zone, be aware of potential issues that will affect Microsoft Office Outlook and Exchange Server. The primary impact will be that appointments that occur after April 1, 2008 can appear in the users Calendar one hour earlier than originally scheduled.  Read “Impact for Outlook clients in Iraq” sections for more details. 

4.        Update all Windows servers and desktop operating systems.  If that is not possible due to the size of the customer environment then the customer should update all servers and desktops that are used to schedule or process meetings in Iraq.  This includes updating the following:

a.       All Exchange servers that have mailboxes in the Baghdad (or Arabic) time zone.

b.      All Exchange servers that process messages for mailboxes in the Baghdad (or Arabic) time zone.

c.       All Windows servers in the Baghdad (Arabic) time zone.

d.      All desktop clients that have their local time zone set to the Baghdad (or Arabic) time zone.

e.      All desktop clients that schedule meetings with users that are in the Baghdad (or Arabic) time zone.

5.        After installing the new time zone rules for the Baghdad (Arabic) time zone to the Windows systems, we recommend that users perform the one of the following options to correct their user Calendars and resource mailbox Calendars:

Option 1

Manually Update Appointments

a.       Manually update appointments by dragging-and-dropping the appointments to the correct time.  Each user will need to do this for every appointment that displays appointments as one hour early in their calendar after April 1^st, 2008 for any appointments created by Windows clients in the Baghdad (or Arabic) time zone.

b.      Meeting organizers will need to send out meeting updates.

c.       Attendees need to Accept the meeting updates to correct their Calendars.

Option 2

Update Appointments with the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

a.     Follow the instructions in this document that appear in the section titled “How can I update appointments using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook?“

Option 3

Update Appointments with the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

1.    Follow the instructions in this document that appear in the section titled “How can I update appointments using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool?”

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

• The recommendation for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP is to update the definition for “(GMT +03:00) Baghdad” time zone to reflect the DST dates defined by the Iraqi government. To do so, please see the “How to update Windows Servers and Desktop Operating Systems” section at the end of this document to see specific steps for updating the Windows system registry.
  
  
• Systems updated with the December 2007 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems (KB 942763) had the time zone rules for Baghdad set to change on April 1, 2008.  Systems without the update for 942763 have time zone rules for Baghdad set to change on the first Tuesday of April, which this year would have been April 6, 2008.
  
  The result is that time zone rules are different between the versions of the Windows updates so Outlook appointments can be stamped with DST rules that are configured to change on April 1 or April 6, 2008. 
  
  
• Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista have a hotfix available which is documented in KB 950571. 

Windows Mobile devices will show all items (messages and appointments) 1 hour off if the new time zone rules begin April 1^st.

These devices require an update that is documented in KB 950885 which contains the details regarding updates for Window Mobile 5 and 6.  Updates are available on the Microsoft Download Center.

Supporting Links

KB Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950885

Windows Mobile Information: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx

Windows Mobile Update CAB file: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/d/a/5daa2d11-6733-442d-a275-429af43a62f0/WindowsMobile-KB949168.cab

Windows Mobile Update Desktop file: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/d/a/5daa2d11-6733-442d-a275-429af43a62f0/WindowsMobile-KB949168.msi

There is a difference between the previous DST dates established and the new dates defined by the Iraqi government for the 2008 period. We are going to call this difference “Delta Period”.

Delta period for Iraq DST in 2008:

Systems that are not updated will experience incorrect times from April 1^st 2008 until October 1^st 2008 and each year thereafter until updates with the new rules are applied. 

The inconvenience experienced by Outlook client users happens for all appointments during the delta period that were created before the administrators update the DST dates on the operating system.

Those appointments will be off 1 hour. This may happen for both recurring and single-instance appointments.

The appointments created after the DST dates have been updated on the operating system will have the correct time.

1.    Why do we experience this behavior?

To answer this question, we need to understand how Outlook schedules meetings and appointments:

Three factors affect the scheduling of a meeting and appointment in Outlook:

• The computer's clock setting (time).
• The computer's local time zone setting.
• The computer's daylight saving time adjustment setting.

Outlook time stamps the message request with the Greenwich Mean Time for the meeting. Outlook calculates Greenwich Mean Time by using the computer's clock time, plus or minus the local time zone adjustment, minus (depending upon the time of year) the daylight-saving time adjustment.

As soon as Outlook receives the meeting request it will calculate the meeting time for the recipient and schedule it on the calendar. If any of the three factors listed earlier are incorrect at that time, the meeting time will be incorrect. You cannot correct the time after the fact by correcting the factor in error; you must open the meeting request and manually correct the scheduled time.

2.    How can I update appointments using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook?

An update is available for the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook which will be documented in KB 950575.  A summary of the instructions for installing and launching the tool are as follows:

1)      Download the Time Zone Data Update Tool package by going to the following link: 

       http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=%20E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568

2)      Click the "Download" button

3)      Select the "Run" option to install and launch the tool.

4)      Click the checkbox to Accept the License Terms and click the "Continue" button

5)      When the "Change Calendar Time Zone" dialog appears, click "Cancel" which will close the application.

6)      Download the update for the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook from the following location:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/A/B/DABC6A4D-C995-4CA2-9604-84CFB1C8001A/office-kb950575-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

7)      Run office-kb950575-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

8)      Click the checkbox to accept the License Terms and click the "Continue" button

9)      Click "OK" once installation is complete

10)   Click on the Windows "Start" button

11)   Select All Programs, Accessories and then "windows Explorer"

12)   Browse to the folder "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Office Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool"

13)   Open the file "TZMOVE.EXE"

14)   Rebase Calendars according to the instructions in KB 931667.

Refer to KB article 931667 for additional options and guidelines.

Note:  Meeting requests will automatically be sent out for any updated meeting as part of this process.  Recipients of the meeting requests must Accept updates that they want to have correctly displayed in their Calendars.

3.    How can I update appointments using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool?
 

An update is available which is required for the Exchange Calendar Update Tool to update appointments correctly.  The update is installed over existing installations of the tool using the following steps.

1)      Download the Exchange Calendar Update Tool from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=27BB0EE2-03AC-4E5B-AEC5-3E878490FCE1&displaylang=en

2)      Run the downloaded CalendarUpdateConfigurationTool.exe

3)      Set the "Unzip to folder" option to a location where you can easily access the extracted files.

4)      Click the "Unzip" button

5)      The tool will launch automatically. 

6)      Read the Readme.htm that is displayed and the close it

7)      Run the extracted "Install.exe"

8)      If you receive any errors when launching Install.exe then review Readme.htm for System Requirements and Permissions.

9)      Click "Next" on the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool Installation Wizard dialog

10)   Set the install path which is "C:\Program Files\MSExTmz" by default and click "Next".

11)   Click the checkbox to accept the license terms and click "Next".

12)   Again, click the "I agree" option to accept the license terms and click "Next".

13)    Click "Next" again to confirm the installation and then click "Finish"

14)   Download the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Outlook package by going to the following link: 

      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=%20E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568

This step of installing the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Outlook is required to install the update for the Exchange Calendar Update Tool.

15)   Click the "Download" button

16)   Select the "Run" option to install and launch the tool.

17)   Click the checkbox to Accept the License Terms and click the "Continue" button

15)   When the "Change Calendar Time Zone" dialog appears, click "Cancel" which will close the application.

16)   Download the update for the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool from the following location:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/A/B/DABC6A4D-C995-4CA2-9604-84CFB1C8001A/office-kb950575-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

17)   Run office-kb950575-fullfile-x86-glb.exe

18)   Click the checkbox to accept the License Terms and click the "Continue" button

19)   Click "OK" once installation is complete

20)   You can verify the install by ensuring that tzmovelib.dll has a created date of March 20, 2008 or later. 

Note:  tzmovelib.dll is located in the folder where the Exchange Calendar update tool was installed ("C:\Program Files\MSExTmz" by default).

21)   Launch MsExTmzCfg.exe.

22)   Rebase appointments according to the steps in KB 941018.

(See Troubleshooting.doc in the installation location for addressing error messages generated by the tool.)

Note:  Meeting requests will automatically be sent out for any updated meeting as part of this process.  Recipients of the meeting requests must Accept updates that they want to have correctly displayed in their Calendars.

In the December 2007 set of time zone update roll ups, Microsoft Exchange has updated Baghdad (Arabic) time zone, as per the Iraqi government’s original notification, as noted in KB940368. Given the Iraqi government recent DST change Microsoft has provided an Exchange update for Exchange 2003 SP2 (KB951061). No changes were made to the CDO 1.2.1 and MAPI CDO 1.2.1 (KB945835) and as such will require no additional updates.

NOTE:  A recently discovered issue with the Exchange Calendar Update Tool affects how the system patch date is stamped.  When you use the SystemPatchDate option in the Exchange update tool, a date that is in the MM/DD/YYYY format that uses a single-digit month is set to M/DD/YYYY. This error occurs because of an incorrect option setting in the configuration .ini file.

The only workaround is to not use the SystemPatchDate option since has been confirmed to be an issue and a fix is currently being investigated.  KB 941018 is being updated with this information.

This section is based on the following article:

914387 - How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;914387

1.     Create a registry file that contains the new DST settings for Iraq, following these steps below:

1.1            Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.

1.2            Copy the following registry information, and then paste it into the Notepad document:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Arabic Standard Time]

"TZI"=hex:4c,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Arabic Standard Time\Dynamic DST]

"2007"=hex:4c,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,0a,00,01,00,01,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

"2008"=hex:4c,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

"LastEntry"=dword:000007d8 

1.3            On the File menu, click Save As.

1.4            Select a destination, and then type TZupdate.reg in the File name box. 

1.5             In the Save as type box, click All Files, and then click Save.

1.6            Click Start, Run, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt

1.7            At the command prompt, change to the folder that TZupdate.reg is saved into.

1.8            Type the following command at the command prompt:
regedit /s TZupdate.reg

1.9            Next, type the following command to update the registry:
control.exe timedate.cpl /Z,,Arabic Standard Time

2.       In order to deploy these time zone changes in a corporate environment, you can use a startup script as described in the session “Deploy the registry file with the new DST information using Group Policy” below.

Note: The registry settings above contain the following information for the “(GMT +03:00) Baghdad” time zone:

§  There are no daylight saving time begin/end values since we are removing DST settings.

Use a script to reload the TimeZoneInformation registry key

Time zone information is stored in two locations. We need to make sure these locations are updated. Importing the TZupdate.reg file updates the time zone database in the registry. Next, you must create a script that updates the time zone information registry key in the CurrentControlSet. You can deploy this script by using Group Policy or another deployment mechanism.