Microsoft Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog : DST

Hotfix Available for Fiji 2009/2010 Daylight Saving Time

atsim — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:23:00 GMT

Fiji government has approved the re-introduction of daylight saving time in Fiji, from Sunday, November 29th 2009 at 2.00 am to Sunday, April 25th 2010 at 3.00 am. This hotfix updates the start and end of Daylight Savings Time (DST) for Fiji in 2009.

Microsoft has produced a hotfix to implement this change. If interested in downloading this hotfix, please refer to KB 977748 titled: “A hotfix is available to update the Daylight Saving Time for the Fiji Standard Time time zone for the year 2009 for Windows XP-based, Windows Server 2003-based, Windows Vista-based, Windows Server 2008-based, Windows 7-based and Windows Server 2008 R2-based computers”.

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

atsim — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:54:00 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/976098

Advisory: Mauritius Discontinues Daylight Saving Time in 2009

atsim — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:48:00 GMT

There will be no daylight saving time (DST) in Mauritius in 2009 despite positive reports from a recent DST trial, which began in October 2008 and ended in March 2009. Mauritius’ government announced that it would not repeat last year’s DST trial. Microsoft Windows provides a way to prevent machines from switching into DST by un-checking the “Automatically adjust the clock for Daylight Saving Time” box in the Date and Time window.

Alternatively, customers in Mauritius can switch their computers to the “Arabian Standard Time” time zone with a display name of “(GMT+04:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat” or the “Georgian Standard Time” time zone with a display name of “(GMT+04:00) Tbilisi”. These time zones have a bias of UTC +4 which is the same as Mauritius 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.

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.

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: 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.

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