Tag: Russia

Windows Updates for New Russia Time Zones Now Available

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date September 24, 2014
1 Comment on Windows Updates for New Russia Time Zones Now Available

As I highlighted last month, the Windows team in OSG have supported the new Russian time zone changes. What with the changes to the Ruble symbol and now the eleven new time zones and move away from daylight saving time, perhaps I should rename my blog…

As noted, the target release date was September 23, 2014, which was met: the Russian Federation time zone update is available now at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2998527 and on the Microsoft Russia site at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst/ru.

Please note that if you’re using any of the current Russian time zones or doing business with customers or partners in the affected territory, the guidance we received from the Russian government that the change will occur on October 26, 2014 at 2:00 am local time. When we see time zone offset changes (due to daylight saving time) and time zone revisions, the time change is often executed with the next click of the clock after 1:59:59h. (Well, not always: Samoa made its historic move at 23:59:59.)

Consumers and Small/Medium Business customers should ensure that Windows Update is turned on if you don’t have someone managing your computer. The update packages for all currently supported Windows platforms are available via Windows Update. If someone manages your network at work, it’s likely the needed updates are schedule to be deployed to your computers and devices, if they haven’t been installed already.

If you live or work in some of the regions affected by this change, you may want to check the time zone setting on your device (available in the Settings on Windows 8). In some cases in the affected areas, your device may be set to a new time zone. Some other applications may require changes or adjustments to the time and date information. In some cases, all the necessary changes automatically and you will need to take individual decisions in specific cases. For information on updating software from other vendors, please visit their Web sites.

For more information, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/time – details will be added to the site on other products and services as available.

Tags Announcements, DST, Russia, Windows

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Russian Federation Permanently Switches to Winter Time October 26, 2014: Changes to Microsoft Products

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date August 3, 2014
6 Comments on Russian Federation Permanently Switches to Winter Time October 26, 2014: Changes to Microsoft Products

(Update 082214: Please see the new post Update on Windows support for new Russian Time Zones with more information on the upcoming update.)

Back in 2011, I wrote on the Microsoft corporate blog about the of daylight saving time in the Russian Federation. Then in 2012, I noted Russia considered a return to Winter Time in 2012.

If my very poor knowledge of Russian proverbs is correct: Бог тро́ицу лю́бит. In other words, “Third time’s a charm.” (I’m also reminded of the saying, “There was a time they loved an accordionist, and now the time has come where they love a tractor driver.” but that’s a different story.)

Since then, there’s been a number of reports of discussions in Russia about a shift away from the changes to time zones and daylight saving time offsets in the Russian Federation. Over the summer (here in the northern hemisphere) the Russian State Duma passed a proposal which was signed into law by President Putin, which outlines the plan to change all of the time zones in the Federation. (A highlight from the venerable BBC is available here.) The changes will take effect October 26, 2014, and essentially moves many existing time zones back one hour, and create two new time zones. These new time zones will not observe daylight saving time (aka DST).

(You may view the Federal Law 431985-6, noting the return to winter time and to use 11 time zones in Russia at http://itar-tass.com/obschestvo/1333711 and http://www.pravo.gov.ru:8080/page.aspx?111660. with the amendments to the Federal Law on time available here.)

We were aware of this proposal and have worked closely with representatives in the country to prepare our products and services for the update. For our customers and partners worldwide, this means there are some things to be aware of, and in some cases, work to do to prepare for this change. We have a preliminary set of new display names for the new time zones to use with the new Russian Time Zones (aka RTZ):

RTZ #	Name of Time Zone (Current)	Display Name
1	Kaliningrad Standard Time	(UTC+02:00) Kaliningrad (RTZ1)
2	Russian Standard Time	(UTC+03:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd (RTZ2)
3	N/A	(UTC+04:00) Izhevsk, Samara (RTZ3)
4	Ekaterinburg Standard Time	(UTC+05:00) Ekaterinburg (RTZ4)
5	N. Central Asia Standard Time	(UTC+06:00) Novosibirsk (RTZ5)
6	North Asia Standard Time	(UTC+07:00) Krasnoyarsk (RTZ6)
7	North Asia East Standard Time	(UTC+08:00) Irkutsk (RTZ7)
8	Yakutsk Standard Time	(UTC+09:00) Yakutsk (RTZ8)
9	Vladivostok Standard Time / Magadan Standard Time	(UTC+10:00) Vladivostok, Magadan (RTZ9)
10	N/A	(UTC+11:00) Chokurdakh (RTZ10)
11	Kamchatka Standard Time (obsolete)	(UTC+12:00) Anadyr, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (RTZ11)

(Often, time zone names are referenced by developers through API calls (“GetTimeZoneInformation”) as noted on here on MSDN.)

We have outlined the release schedule for the update prior to the change, which we’ll publish shortly on our Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center (at http://www.microsoft.com/time) and on our Daylight Saving Time & Time Zone Blog.

If you’ve read previous posts, you’ll recall that our Windows team in OSG follows DST and TZ changes globally and provides guidance to all product and services teams on the changes. Most applications and services reference the underlying Windows OS for their TZ and DST rules, with some exceptions. This change in Russia has the potential for worldwide impacts on time references for multinational customers, and so the recommendation will be for all customers to apply the updates to currently supported products. Updates will be important not only for users in Russia but for connected systems around the world. (While Microsoft’s Services infrastructure will be updated to reflect these DST changes, it’s important that your computers — both clients and servers that connect to and interact with these services — should have the Windows DST updates applied in order to ensure data integrity.)

Which reminds me: we have also outlined recommendations to help achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zone policies. (More information is also available at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_ms_response.)

Also available via https://aka.ms/Russia2014

Tags DST, Russia, Time Zone, Windows

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Announcement: Late breaking 2011 time zone changes for Armenia and Ukraine (again)

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date October 22, 2011

I originally posted that we confirmed that Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine won’t fall back but also stay permanently on summer time on October 30, similar to the move in Russia.

Well, it appears that that these decisions were recently reversed.

Please note we have received reports that Armenia and Ukraine have canceled their proposed changes. (http://blogs.technet.com/b/dst2007/archive/2011/10/19/notice-ukraine-and-armenia-revert-2011-dst-cancellation.aspx).

According to reports in Rada and Kyivpost that we have confirmed through our offices in the region, Ukraine will not stay on permanent summer time and instead will fall back to winter time on October 30, 2011 as originally scheduled. If these reports become the plan of record, customers in Armenia and Ukraine will not have to adjust time zone settings on their computers that are running Windows operating system.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article KB2625508 has been updated with this information.

Our advice? Check with your local government if you live in Armenia or Ukraine to get more details. This is one of the reasons we recommend that in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zone policies, Microsoft requests that governments provide the following:

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.

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

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Also available via http://bit.ly/ruDYnA

Tags advice, Announcements, DST, government, Microsoft, Russia, time, Windows, Windows 7, Your Questions

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Announcement: Late 2011 time zone changes for Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date October 5, 2011

Important update October 21, 2011: Please note we have received reports that Armenia and Ukraine have canceled their proposed changes. (http://blogs.technet.com/b/dst2007/archive/2011/10/19/notice-ukraine-and-armenia-revert-2011-dst-cancellation.aspx).

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article KB2625508 has been updated with this information.

[10/06/2011: See this blog post form the Windows team for more information on the changes.]

As I noted in a post last week, we confirmed that similar to the move in Russia, that Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine won’t fall back but also stay permanently on summer time on October 30.

Microsoft’s guidance for Windows to the affected countries will be to move to another time zone has been released in the KB Article 2011 time zone changes for Eastern Europe…

Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia have decided to discontinue daylight saving time in 2011. According to the current Windows time zone rules, daylight saving time (summer time) is (UTC+3:00) in Belarus and Ukraine and (UTC+5:00) in Armenia. Summer time is scheduled to end on October 30, 2011 and move to winter time, which is (UTC+2:00) in Belarus and Ukraine and (UTC+4:00) in Armenia. According to the latest changes, they will remain on summer time (UTC +3:00) indefinitely and will not “fall back” to winter time. However, Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia have now discontinued winter time and will remain permanently on summer time.

The native time zones for the affected countries will be updated in the next planned cumulative Windows time update in December 2011. No hotfix is planned for release in the interim. Users in these time zones should move to the following alternative suggested time zones:

(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad

(UTC +5:00) Tashkent

Note To move to the “(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad” time zones, customers must first install the August 2011 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570791). A new time zone will be created for Ukraine and Belarus in the December 2011 Windows time cumulative update, which users can move back to.

Affected Country Current Native Time Zone Current Standard Time Current Summer Time (DST) New Workaround Time Zone (no DST)

Belarus

(UTC+02:00) Minsk

UTC+2:00

UTC+3:00

(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad

Ukraine

(UTC+02:00) Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius

UTC+2:00

UTC+3:00

(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad

Armenia

(UTC+04:00) Yerevan

UTC+4:00

UTC+5:00

(UTC +5:00) Tashkent

For more information, click the following article number to view Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2570791 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570791/) August 2011 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems

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

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Tags advice, Announcements, DST, government, Microsoft, Russia, time, Windows, Windows 7, Your Questions

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Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine to abolish Daylight Saving Time, Microsoft guidance for Windows

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date September 30, 2011
3 Comments on Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine to abolish Daylight Saving Time, Microsoft guidance for Windows

[Updated 21 October, 2011] Please note we have received reports that Armenia and Ukraine have canceled their proposed changes. (http://blogs.technet.com/b/dst2007/archive/2011/10/19/notice-ukraine-and-armenia-revert-2011-dst-cancellation.aspx). According to reports in Rada and Kyivpost, Ukraine will not stay on permanent summer time and instead will fall back to winter time on October 30, 2011 as originally scheduled. If these reports become the plan of record, customers in Armenia and Ukraine will not have to adjust time zone settings on their computers that are running Windows operating system.

As I noted this week noted this week, I posted on the Microsoft Corporate blog about our efforts to inform our customers and partners on our activities related to the end of daylight saving time in the Russian Federation, a change noted earlier this year. For our customers and partners worldwide, this means there are some things to be aware of and in some cases work to do to prepare for this change.

As you may know, in 2011, the Russian government adopted a law to cancel Summer Time (the region’s term for daylight saving time, or DST) and won’t “fall back” to standard, winter time.

We now have confirmed reports that similar to the move in Russia, that Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine won’t fall back but also stay permanently on summer time on October 30. (There have been some initial rumours about other countries following Russia’s lead and considering cancelling Daylight saving time too. We will also provide details on these changes as they come up and are ratified and enacted into law.)

Microsoft’s guidance for Windows to the affected countries will be to move to another time zone (referred to as ‘workaround time zone’ in the table below).

The ‘workaround time zone’ will be used until Microsoft updates the native time zones in the next Windows Time Zone Cumulative Update (scheduled for December 2011). No Hotfix will be issued in the interim for these changes.


Country	Current Native Time Zone	New Standard Time	Daylight Time	Workaround Time Zone (No DST)
Belarus	(UTC+02:00) Minsk	UTC+2:00	UTC+3:00	(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad
Ukraine	(UTC+02:00) Helsinki, Kyiv, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius	UTC+2:00	UTC+3:00	(UTC +3:00) Kaliningrad
Armenia	(UTC+04:00) Yerevan	UTC+4:00	UTC+5:00	(UTC+05:00) Tashkent