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

Clip art from Office OnlineOnce 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. (see here for 2008 changes in Egypt)


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.

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).


As noted in this article, 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 should 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.  (When in doubt, ask. 😉


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 and in a prior post), 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. 


As I originally posted here, 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


Let us know if you have questions.


Tags: Windows, Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Egypt, Australia, ; 18,000,000 (up from 3M six months ago); 20,400,000 (up >3M)


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Announcement: Microsoft Windows August 2009 Updates to Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones

Clip art from Office OnlineCheck out Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article 970653, "August 2009 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems", which the Windows team just posted. 

A nod to the good folks across our company working on our effort to help manage time (particularly in daylight saving time and time zone changes) documented and followed at http://www.microsoft.com/time and over at the blog at http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007.  Lourdes is coordinating the efforts on our daylight saving time and time zone updates and releases for current products across the various product groups at Microsoft.  As noted, this is a tough job, to say the least. 

So, back to the latest semi-annual release…

The update that this article describes changes the time zone data to accommodate daylight saving time (DST) changes in several countries, as outlined in this article. This update also includes other DST-related changes, time zone-related changes, and settings-related changes. Some of these changes have occurred since the products that are listed in the "Applies to" section were originally released.

The following changes were made since the previous Windows cumulative time zone update. This update was described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 951072:

  • W. Australia Standard Time: Fixes dynamic DST table for the W. Australia time zone.
  • SA Pacific Standard Time: Removes "Rio Branco" from the display name of this time zone.
  • SA Western Time: Changes the display name of this time zone from (GMT-04:00) La Paz to (GMT-04:00) Georgetown, La Paz, San Juan.
  • SA Eastern Standard Time: Changes the display name of this time zone from (GMT-03:00) Georgetown to (GMT-03:00) Cayenne.
  • Greenland Standard Time: Adjusts the dynamic DST table for the Greenland time zone.
  • Morocco Standard Time: Adjusts the DST start and end dates for the Morocco time zone for changes after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (December 2008).
  • Pakistan Standard Time: Adjusts the DST start and end dates for the Pakistan time zone for changes after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (December 2008).
  • Paraguay Standard Time: Introduces the new Paraguay Time Zone with DST start dates and end dates after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (December 2008).
  • Fiji Standard Time: Removes Kamchatka from the display name of this time zone.
  • Kamchatka Standard Time: Introduces the new Kamchatka Time Zone with DST start dates and end dates after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (December 2008).
  • Coordinated Universal Time: Introduces the new UTC Time Zone without DST after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (December 2008).
  • Montevideo Standard Time: Fixes the dynamic DST table for Montevideo time zone for Windows XP

Registry subkey name

Display name

Daylight name

Standard name

DST start

DST end
W. Australia Standard Time (GMT+08:00) Perth W. Australia Daylight Time W. Australia Standard Time Last Sunday of October at 02:00:00.000 Last Sunday of March at 03:00:00.000
SA Pacific Standard Time (GMT-05:00) Bogota, Lima, Quito SA Pacific Daylight Time SA Pacific Standard Time No DST No DST
SA Western Standard Time (GMT-04:00) Georgetown, La Paz, San Juan SA Western Daylight Time SA Western Standard Time No DST No DST
SA Eastern Standard Time (GMT-03:00) Cayenne SA Eastern Daylight Time SA Eastern Standard Time No DST No DST
Greenland Standard Time (GMT-03:00) Greenland Greenland Daylight Time Greenland Standard Time Last Saturday of March at 22:00:00.000 4th Saturday of October at 23:00:00.000
Morocco Standard Time (GMT) Casablanca Morocco Daylight Time Morocco Standard Time Last Sunday of May at 23:59:59.999 3rd Thursday of August at 23:59:59.999
Pakistan Standard Time (GMT+05:00) Islamabad, Karachi Pakistan Daylight Time Pakistan Standard Time 2nd Tuesday of April at 23:59:59.999 Last Saturday of October at 23:59:59.999
Paraguay Standard Time (GMT-04:00) Asuncion Paraguay Daylight Time Paraguay Standard Time 3rd Saturday of October at 23:59:59.999 1st Saturday of March at 23:59:59.999
Kamchatka Standard Time (GMT+12:00) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Kamchatka Daylight Time Kamchatka Standard Time Last Sunday of March at 02:00:00.000 Last Sunday of October at 03:00:00.000
Fiji Standard Time (GMT+12:00) Fiji, Marshall Is. Fiji Daylight Time Fiji Standard Time No DST No DST
Montevideo Standard Time (GMT-03:00) Montevideo Montevideo Daylight Time Montevideo Standard Time 1st Sunday of October at 02:00:00.000 2nd Sunday of March at 02:00:00.000
Coordinated Universal Time (GMT) Coordinated Universal Time Coordinated Universal Time Coordinated Universal Time No DST No DST

As noted in this article, 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 should 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.  (When in doubt, ask. 😉

 

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 and in a prior post), 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. 

As I originally posted here, 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

 

Tags: Windows, Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST; 18,000,000 (up from 3M six months ago); 20,400,000 (up >3M)

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The latest Microsoft “Laptop Hunters” commercial: all it’s missing is a puppy

New in heavy rotation is the latest Laptop Hunter "You find it, you keep it" Microsoft PC television commercial…

As Steve noted, this time Matt and Olivia are looking for a laptop under $700 and "Windows Photo Galley gets a high five in this ad and eventually they walk out with a HP dv7."

As they say, you can’t go wrong with happy families, babies and puppies in commercials, and this one is just a step away from that ultimate level of cuteness. The bumper at the end of the commercial: "We’re a PC, because we can share photos with this little guy."

Tags: articles, what I read, I’m a PC, Microsoft, Windows.

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Announcement: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta now available

The Windows Security Essentials beta is now available for download on a new Microsoft site dedicated to Security Essentials. Windows Security Essentials will replace Windows Live OneCare. The new software package will provide a basic level of antimalware and virus protection, defenses against worms, Trojan horses, rootkits and spyware.

What is Microsoft Security Essentials

You’re too busy to spend a lot of time worrying about protecting your PC. With Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, you get high-quality protection against viruses and spyware, including Trojans, worms and other malicious software. And best of all, there are no costs or annoying subscriptions to keep track of.

Security Essentials is easy to install and easy to use. Updates and upgrades are automatic, so there’s no need to worry about having the latest protection. It’s easy to tell if you’re protected – when the Security Essentials icon is green, your status is good. It’s as simple as that.

When you’re busy using your PC, you don’t want to be bothered by needless alerts. Security Essentials runs quietly in the background, only alerting you if there’s something you need to do. And it doesn’t use a lot of system resources, so it won’t get in the way of your work or fun.

This beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People’s Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).Please visit the more information page to learn more about system requirements, our End User License Agreement and other important information.

To get the beta, just click here or visit the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Home page to get to the appropriate page on Microsoft Connect. There you’ll answer a few questions and be able to download the Security Essentials beta.

 

Tags: articles, blogs, Windows 7, security, OneCare.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Windows 7, download, OneCare, Security

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

Thanks to Lourdes, with a note of the Optional Fix-it that is now available for Daylight Saving Time changes in Bangladesh this year.

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 19th at 11:00

 

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.

Public service announcement: As noted in a prior post, our 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 up to a few months prior to the release date.) But changes such as these – and without official notification – are difficult for sysadmins and IT professionals around the world to manage.

And here’s my regular advice for governments: in support of these types of changes, we provide guidance and 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 – and this is important – we suggest that entities considering the changes implement changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 23:59:59, 24:00:00 or 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, data pulls or other automated tasks.

Just sayin’.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Clubhouse, Windows Vista, Windows XP, DST, hotfix; 17,90,000 (up from 3.4M a year ago); 18,000,000 (up from 900K a year ago)

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