Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog

Microsoft Announces Update to Support Policy for Daylight-Saving Time or Time Zone Changes

atsim — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:16:00 GMT

As part of Microsoft’s continued focus on customer satisfaction, we are announcing a revision to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy regarding the availability of Daylight Saving Time (DST) or Time Zone (TZ) updates during the Extended Support phase.

DST or TZ updates are important because unless they are applied, the time zone setting for a computer’s clock and calendar, as well as the recorded and reported timestamps may be incorrect. This change to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy will enable all Microsoft customers to obtain these broadly distributed DST or TZ updates and help ensure their computer’s time information is accurate.

There are currently two kinds of updates for DST or TZ:

The general distribution DST or TZ releases that are intended for broad consumption and made available via Microsoft and/or Windows Update two times every calendar year
Out-of-cycle DST or TZ hotfixes

Previously, both types of DST or TZ updates were made available at no charge only for products in the Mainstream Support phase. However, to obtain any of these updates for products in the Extended Support phase, customers had to purchase and enroll in the DST Extended Hotfix Support program.

As per the revised DST policy, Microsoft has decided to make the following changes for products that entered the Extended Support phase after January 1, 2009:

General distribution of DST or TZ releases for products in the Extended Support phase will now be available at no-charge and be made available via Microsoft Update and/or Windows Update. These general distribution updates will be provided twice a year on the northern hemisphere’s fall and winter.

Customers who require DST or TZ updates outside of the general distribution of DST or TZ releases will need to enroll in an Extended Hotfix Support program to obtain a DST or TZ hotfix and pay any applicable hotfix fees.

The Microsoft Support Lifecycle (MSL) policy provides transparent, predictable information regarding the support lifecycle of Microsoft products. More information is available on the MSL Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.

Microsoft Windows Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update now available (August 2009)

atsim — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:04:00 GMT

The most recent cumulative update to daylight saving time (DST) and world time zones (TZ) is now available for supported versions of the Windows Operating System via Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update.

Microsoft product teams follow 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 Windows "Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Updates" are released in December for each calendar year; a semi-annual update will be released in August, as needed. Microsoft products that are affected may also schedule updates to accommodate some of these changes.

For more information about this cumulative DST and TZ update, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970653

Announcement: Microsoft Windows 2009 Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones Hotfix available for Egypt, Western Australia

atsim — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:40:00 GMT

Once again, as has happened in the past, a couple of countries will see new changes to their observation of Daylight Saving Time (DST) , this time in Egypt and Western Australia.

A new Microsoft Knowledge Base article is up – KB 974176 – noting the hotfix now available to update the Daylight Saving Time for the "(GMT+02:00) Cairo" and "(GMT+08:00) Perth" time zones for the year 2009 for Windows Server 2003-based, Windows Vista-based, Windows Server 2008-based, and Windows 7-based computers.

Egypt has announced to change the Daylight Saving Time (DST) to end on midnight August 21st. This hotfix updates the end date of DST for the "(GMT+02:00) Cairo" time zone in 2009. The clock will move one hour backward at midnight between August 20th and August 21st.
Australia has announced the end of Daylight Saving Time for the Western Australia time zone. This hotfix removes the Daylight Saving Time for the "(GMT+08:00) Perth" time zone.
More specifically, this hotfix:

· Sets DST end date for Egypt at 23:59:59.999 on August 20th, 2009

· Removes DST for Western Australia time zone in 2009.

To get the hotfix, click here to view and request hotfix downloads.

Please note that these packages are call-in/request only packages and will not be released to the Microsoft Download Center or via Microsoft Update Services. This change will be included in the next DST Windows cumulative package released for all currently supported operating systems in December 2008 (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista).

Microsoft strongly recommends that DST and time zone updates be installed on all impacted systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with current DST rules and time zone settings worldwide. Customers should review the product updates available and posted on this site and at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist for the latest and updated information of Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time.

An important note for Consumers

For those customers (consumers, small businesses) wondering "Does this mean I have to install the updates manually?"

No. Generally, consumers can wait for the updates to be installed via Windows Update rather than download and install these from the DLC. And for end users who have their PCs managed by a central administrator, your IT folks will handle the distribution and updating of your PCs over the network.

Additional information

Please note that where we have heard that changes may be coming to a territory but have yet to receive an official confirmation from a government, we indicate that the changes are "not yet confirmed."

As a reminder on our cadence (outlined here), our product teams are have moved to a semi-annual product update cadence (with provisions for out-of-band releases as needed). Following the Windows regular cadence for publishing newly legislated DST rules and time zone updates, our "Cumulative DST and Time Zone Updates" will be released in November/ December (to the Download Centre and via Windows Update respectively) for the coming calendar year; we also provide semi-annual updates (like this one) in the July/August timeframe as needed.

For each, the window closes for additional updates a few months (generally four to six) prior to the release date.

Most Windows applications (and some services) reference the underlying OS for DST and time zone information, but some do not. The product and service groups with offerings that have internal DST or TZ references have agreed to follow the regular schedule for cumulative Windows OS DST & TZ updates. The regular Windows release provide a regular schedule for other product groups to follow, as noted in the DST & TZ Product Update Cadence policy. We hope that this will provide a more predictable way for our customers to anticipate and plan for our cumulative updates

Notice: Optional Fix-it Available for Bangladesh 2009 Daylight Saving Time

atsim — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:07:00 GMT

As reported in the Bangladesh Government’s Gazette, Bangladesh has announced the introduction of Daylight Saving Time (DST). The start of DST for 2009 is on June 19^th at 11:00 PM.

Microsoft has produced an automated workaround (called a fix-it) to implement the DST Start time change for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The Fix it solution is a MSI file so it is deployed as any other MSI based software package.

If interested in downloading this workaround please refer to KB972423 titled:”An optional update is available to update the Daylight Saving Time for Bangladesh for the year 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 based computers”

For other Windows versions, please refer to KB 914387 “How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems” on how to update the time zone registry key.

Notice: Hotfix Available for Morocco 2009 Daylight Saving Time

atsim — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:06:00 GMT

Morocco has announced the start of DST for 2009 on June 1st at midnight. The clock will move one hour forward at midnight between May 31st and June 1st, and then move one hour back at midnight between August 20th and August 21st in 2009. There was no DST for Morocco in 2009 prior to this update.

More specifically, this update sets DST for Morocco as follows:

• DST starts at 23:59:59 on May 31st, 2009

• DST ends at 23:59:59 on August 20th, 2009

Microsoft has produced a hotfix to implement this change. If interested in downloading this hotfix, please refer to KB 970613 titled: “A hotfix is available to update the Daylight Saving Time for the "(GMT) Casablanca" time zone for the year 2009 for Windows XP-based, Windows Server 2003-based, Windows Vista-based and Windows Server 2008-based computers”.

Notice: Now also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: Optional Hotfix Available for Pakistan 2009 Daylight Saving Time

atsim — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:25:00 GMT

As reported in various publications, including Daily Times, Pakistan has announced the start of DST for 2009 on April 15^th at midnight. This information is subject to change as it has not been officially confirmed by a Pakistani government source.

Last Monday a hotfix was released to implement this change for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The update is now also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. If interested in downloading this hotfix, please refer to KB 970084 titled: “A hotfix is available to update the Daylight Saving Time for the "(GMT +5:00) Islamabad, Karachi" time zone for the year 2009 for Windows XP-based, Windows Server 2003-based, Windows Vista-based and Windows Server 2008-based computers”.

Notice: Optional Hotfix Available for Pakistan 2009 Daylight Saving Time

atsim — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:11:00 GMT

Microsoft has produced a hotfix to implement this change for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. If interested in downloading this hotfix, please refer to KB 970084 titled: “A hotfix is available to update the Daylight Saving Time for the "(GMT +5:00) Islamabad, Karachi" time zone for the year 2009 for Windows Vista-based and Windows Server 2008-based computers”.

For other Windows versions, please refer to KB 914387 “How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems” on how to update the time zone registry key.

Advisory: Tunisia Discontinues Daylight Saving Time in 2009

atsim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:17:00 GMT

The Tunisian press agency reported that Daylight Saving Time(DST) will be discontinued in Tunisia in 2009 due to the fact that the fasting month of Ramadan coincides with the period concerned by summer time. No reports yet as to whether Tunisia will resume DST in 2010.

Tunisians can switch their computers to the “W. Central Africa Standard Time” time zone with a display name of “(GMT+01:00) West Central Africa”. This time zone has a bias of UTC +1 which is Tunisia’s standard time bias and does not observe DST.

Microsoft's product teams are moving to a regular rhythm to update their products and services to reflect these time changes. For each update release, Microsoft accepts change requests at up to a few months prior to the release date. Please refer to Microsoft's Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests, providing recommendations in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies. We suggest that governments should provide the following when considering changing DST or making adjustments to time zones:

1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.

2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.

3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important notes for governments:

Please refer to Microsoft's Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It's important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes.
We suggest that entities considering the DST changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, financial reports, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Advisory: Syria to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

atsim — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:56:00 GMT

Advisory: Syria to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that daylight saving time in Syria will begin on March 26, 2009. NO reports yet as to when DST will end in Syria this year.

The report states that The Syrian Ministers approved the suggestion by the Ministry of Electricity to begin work with the daylight saving time on Friday March 27th, with clocks set ahead 60 minutes on the night of Thursday March 26th as noted here in English and here in Arabic.

1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.

2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.

3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important notes for governments:

Please refer to Microsoft's Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It's important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes.
We suggest that entities considering the DST changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, financial reports, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Advisory: Palestine to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

atsim — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:17:00 GMT

Reports today via the Palestine News Network (arabic.pnn.ps) reported that daylight saving time in Palestine will begin on March 26, 2009, and end around September 27.

The report states that Palestinian officials have decided to begin daylight saving time on Thursday, March 26, 2009, and expects to maintain DST until September 27, 2009 as noted here (in Arabic).

Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.
Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.
Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important note for governments: Let me note that in support of these types of changes, we provide Microsoft's Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It's important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes. In addition, we suggest that entities considering the changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, financial reports, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Microsoft Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update now available (December 2008)

atsim — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:22:00 GMT

The most recent cumulative updates to daylight saving time (DST) and world time zones (TZ) are now available for supported versions of the following products. For the latest DST updates on each of these products, please visit the following Microsoft Web site: Microsoft Daylight Saving Time Support page.
The cumulative updates can be downloaded as indicated in the same Web page.

Microsoft product teams follow 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 December for the coming calendar year; a semi-annual update will be released in July/August, as needed. Microsoft products that are affected may also schedule updates to accommodate some of these changes.

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.

More details are available at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_hottopics.

Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update for Windows now available (December 2008)

atsim — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:24:00 GMT

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 and Windows Update..

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 955839, December 2008 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems

(More details are available now at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_hottopics.)

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 follow 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

Daylight saving time ends this weekend, November 2, in much of North America (posted October 30, 2008)

atsim — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:01:00 GMT

Daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of North America. The US Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced changes to the start and end dates of DST beginning in 2007. Now, DST in North America is observed across most of the United States as well as Canada from the second Sunday in March through to the first Sunday in November. In 2008, DST generally ends at 2:00AM local time on Sunday, November 2. This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.

Please note that some parts of Canada and the United States do not observe DST, instead they remain on standard time throughout the year. This includes Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Saskatchewan, and parts of northern British Columbia.

Pakistan: Daylight saving time ends on November 1 at midnight

atsim — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:52:00 GMT

Daylight saving time ends this weekend in Pakistan. Late in August 2008, it was announced that Pakistan's daylight saving time (DST) would be extended to midnight between October 31 and November 1, 2008.

In May of 2008, Pakistan introduced the observance of DST for this year for the first time since 2002. Pakistan will use daylight saving time to save energy as it faces a power crisis. The clocks would move one hour ahead (to UTC+6) at midnight between Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1, in 2008. The DST end date was later in the year changed to October 31.

Daylight saving time is used to save energy by extending daylight, therefore reducing the need to use artificial lighting, air-conditioning and other electrical appliances. In recent times, electricity supplies to homes, businesses and factories across Pakistan were cut for several hours a day.

Guidance for Argentina on Upcoming Daylight Saving Time Implementation for 2008-2009

atsim — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:44:00 GMT

How to Adjust Windows PC Operating Systems and its effects on Exchange/Outlook

Background – Argentina DST 2008/2009 changes

The Argentinean government has announced new start and end dates for the Daylight Saving Time in Argentina for the period of 2008-2009. The new daylight saving time for Argentina is the following:

Daylight saving time begins: October 19^th, 2008
Daylight saving time ends: March 15^th, 2009

Since the new dates published by the government are different from what was defined in the previous years, Windows-based computers will not correctly interpret the time that is related to the transition to daylight saving time.

In addition to Microsoft products, other software, OS releases and hardware (phones, routers, switches and managed devices) may require updates and/or changes.

Our teams at Microsoft have taken several steps to alert customers and partners to the change in Argentina.

Although there will not be any hot fixes provided prior to the change on Sunday, advice and recommendations have been provided and will also be available soon on the central Microsoft DST & time zone site at http://www.microsoft.com/time and at http://www.microsoft.com/argentina/dst.

Of course, a few days is a tough timeframe to get everyone alerted to a change of this magnitude. In order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST rules and time zones, ample advance notice and concentrated efforts on promoting any change should be provided to the people and businesses impacted. Microsoft recommends a minimum timeframe of 6 months to an ideal 1 to 1½ year advance notification.

Special Note for users in Mendoza or other provinces that will not adopt the Daylight Saving Time in Argentina

Some Argentinean provinces will not adopt the daylight saving time that the Federal government released this week. The instructions for these states excluded from DST is to maintain/ change their time zone to ‘(GMT -03:00) Georgetown’ (this time zone may be displayed as ‘(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires, Georgetown’ in some systems) - by default the definition of this time zone does not contain a daylight saving time.

Companies with machines in different states need to make sure that the time zone from machines located on states that will not follow daylight saving time should be configured to ‘(GMT -03:00) Georgetown’, while machines located on states that adopted the DST defined by the federal government should be in either ‘(GMT -02:00) Mid-Atlantic’ or ‘(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone, depending on the option customer selected.

General recommendations

There is no hotfix available at this time to update Windows Operating Systems with the 2008-2009 DST dates for Argentina.
Please note that if you adjust the machine’s clock manually, you may have adverse effects on your environment. This procedure is not supported by Microsoft.
Before applying the changes on Windows Operating Systems to reflect the change in Daylight Saving Time in Argentina, be aware of potential issues that will affect Microsoft Office Outlook and Exchange Server. Read “Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange” section for more details.
Contact Microsoft Support prior to any modification if you are unsure about the steps to follow in order to be prepared for the Daylight Saving Time change in Argentina.

Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange

There is a difference between the DST Dates established in 2007-2008 and the new dates defined by the Argentinean government for 2008-2009. We are going to call this difference “Extended DST Period” or “Delta Period”.

For the year 2008-2009, customers using the ‘(GMT -3:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone have a delta period at the start of the DST as follows:

· From Sunday, October 19^th, 2008 to Saturday, December 28^th, 2008.

And for customers using the ‘(GMT -3:00) Georgetown’ time zone have a delta period that comprehends the whole DST period:

· From Sunday, October 19^th, 2008 to Saturday, December 28^th, 2008.

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.

Why do we experience this behavior?

To answer this question, we need to understand how Outlook schedule 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.

Options to update Windows Operating Systems and correct Outlook calendars

Customer can select between two options to update the Operating Systems and Outlook calendar.

This section describes the anticipated impacts of each option. We recommend customers to evaluate each of the alternatives and consider which one is more suitable to be applied on their environment.

Target

· End users

· Windows Vista and Server 2008 users

· Companies that are not willing to update the (GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires time zone at this time

Advantages

· This alternative is supported to be executed on all Windows Operating Systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 2008, thus it provides a single user and IT experience across all Operating Systems versions.

· The procedure to update all Operating Systems versions is very simple.

Disadvantages

· Administrators will be required to take further actions before the DST ends in Argentina, next March 2009. A fallback procedure will be provided by Microsoft in the future.

· There is no automatic way of changing the time zone on Windows Vista and Windows 2008 machines. This change has to be done manually.

· Administrators will not be able to correct calendar items in a centralized way (directly on the Exchange Server).

The following graph shows a summary of tasks associated with this option:

Below is a brief description of these activities:

Item	When	Activity
1	As fast as possible, starting October 19^th2008	Change machine time zone to ‘(GMT -2:00) Mid Atlantic’ in Windows. This section is detailed in the “Changing Windows OS time zone to ‘(GMT -2:00) Mid Atlantic’”
2	As soon as operating system is updated	Adjust Outlook calendar appointments. This section is explained in ‘Adjusting Outlook calendars for users in Argentina who moved to '(GMT -02:00) Mid-Atlantic’’
3	Early 2009 to March 15^th, 2009	Period that users will have to plan and adjust the ‘(GMT -3:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone with the new definition, change computer time zone back to ‘(GMT -3:00) Buenos Aires’ and readjust Outlook calendar appointments to the new time zone definition. Fallback instructions about this procedure will be released by Microsoft after December, 2008.

The procedures for adjusting Windows Operating Systems and Outlook/Exchange moving machines to (GMT –02:00) Mid-Atlantic are described in the following blog post:

Changing Windows Operating Systems time zone to ‘(GMT -2:00) Mid Atlantic’.

Target

· Enterprise or advanced users

Advantages

· Administrators/Users will have to run a procedure to update their Operating Systems and calendars only once, or else, they will not be required to take further actions before the DST ends in Argentina, next March 2009.

· Administrators/Users may use correct the Outlook calendar either directly on the clients affects, or on a centralized way, on the Exchange Server.

Disadvantages

· This alternative is not supported to be executed on Windows Vista and Windows 2008 machines.

· Users using Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 will experience calendaring issues throughout the DST period after calendar items were adjusted: calendar items may be with one hour off, as well as meeting invitations sent between companies until the end of December 2009.

The following graph shows a summary of tasks associated with this option:

Below is a brief description of these activities:

Item	When	Activity
1	Now to October 19^th2008	Update time zone definition for Argentina to reflect the new dates for DST. Procedures are detailed in “Updating ‘(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone in Windows PC Operating Systems”.
2	As soon as operating system is updated	Adjust Outlook calendar appointments. This section is explained in ‘Adjusting Outlook calendar for users in Argentina who updated the '(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires'’ time zone

The procedures for adjusting the time zone (GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires on Windows Operating Systems and adjusting Outlook/Exchange calendar items are described in the following blog post:

Adjusting ‘(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone on Windows PC Operating Systems

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Disclaimer: The information in this document is written in response to an announcement by the government of Argentina about changes in the daylight saving time in Argentina for the years of 2008-2009.

The steps provided in this bulletin were created to mitigate the impacts that the daylight saving time changes will cause for customers in Argentina. These are the impacts primarily anticipated at the time this document was written, and the effects that customers may face are not restricted to them.

Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog

Microsoft Announces Update to Support Policy for Daylight-Saving Time or Time Zone Changes

Microsoft Windows Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update now available (August 2009)

Announcement: Microsoft Windows 2009 Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones Hotfix available for Egypt, Western Australia

Notice: Optional Fix-it Available for Bangladesh 2009 Daylight Saving Time

Notice: Hotfix Available for Morocco 2009 Daylight Saving Time

Notice: Now also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: Optional Hotfix Available for Pakistan 2009 Daylight Saving Time

Notice: Optional Hotfix Available for Pakistan 2009 Daylight Saving Time

Advisory: Tunisia Discontinues Daylight Saving Time in 2009

The Tunisian press agency reported that Daylight Saving Time(DST) will be discontinued in Tunisia in 2009 due to the fact that the fasting month of Ramadan coincides with the period concerned by summer time. No reports yet as to whether Tunisia will resume DST in 2010.

1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.

2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.

3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Advisory: Syria to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

Advisory: Syria to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that daylight saving time in Syria will begin on March 26, 2009. NO reports yet as to when DST will end in Syria this year.

1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.

2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.

3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Advisory: Palestine to Observe Daylight Saving Time starting March 26

Reports today via the Palestine News Network (arabic.pnn.ps) reported that daylight saving time in Palestine will begin on March 26, 2009, and end around September 27.

Microsoft Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update now available (December 2008)

Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone update for Windows now available (December 2008)

Daylight saving time ends this weekend, November 2, in much of North America (posted October 30, 2008)

Pakistan: Daylight saving time ends on November 1 at midnight

Guidance for Argentina on Upcoming Daylight Saving Time Implementation for 2008-2009

How to Adjust Windows PC Operating Systems and its effects on Exchange/Outlook

Background – Argentina DST 2008/2009 changes

Special Note for users in Mendoza or other provinces that will not adopt the Daylight Saving Time in Argentina

General recommendations

Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange

Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange

Why do we experience this behavior?

Options to update Windows Operating Systems and correct Outlook calendars

The procedures for adjusting Windows Operating Systems and Outlook/Exchange moving machines to (GMT –02:00) Mid-Atlantic are described in the following blog post:

Changing Windows Operating Systems time zone to ‘(GMT -2:00) Mid Atlantic’.

The procedures for adjusting the time zone (GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires on Windows Operating Systems and adjusting Outlook/Exchange calendar items are described in the following blog post:

Adjusting ‘(GMT -03:00) Buenos Aires’ time zone on Windows PC Operating Systems

-------------------------

Disclaimer: The information in this document is written in response to an announcement by the government of Argentina about changes in the daylight saving time in Argentina for the years of 2008-2009.

The suggested actions on this document might receive additional testing. The information described in this document may change without notice.

In addition, customers should be aware that further guidance will be provided at any time by Microsoft.

This document does not include any analysis or procedures for customers on the Mendoza province.

Resources: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST