Your questions: “do we need to update all of our PCs and Servers for Daylight Saving Time?”

I think that I may have to change the name of my blog to the Daylight Saving Time 2007 Blog. 😉

This from a call today “do we need to update all of our PCs and Servers for Daylight Saving Time? We have operations outside the US and Canada, so do we still need to update our systems?”

In short, yes, we recommend that customers update the OS on all systems (client and server machines), especially global customers with operations that touch US and Canadian systems, or other countries with updated time zones (Australia comes to mind). Generally, if you have a business that operates mainly in an unaffected time zone you may not have a pressing need to update your systems as many customers in the US and Canada. Even in areas that are unaffected by the DST change (think Arizona, Hawaii), chances are that businesses in these areas interact with customers in other states where time zones are impacted.

For instance, if an end user outside of these new updated time zones schedules a meeting (using Outlook, for instance) that occurs during the extended DST period (e.g., between Mar 11 and April 1, 2007). The scheduler includes someone who is in or uses a time zone that has changed but has not updated their system with the Windows DST OS update. In this case, the meeting will appear correct on the scheduler’s calendar. But the may be off by an hour for the invited participant if the invitee does not have the OS updates applied. 

Overall, updating your personal computers, handheld devices and servers is a good path to follow, and we provide more info on the newly refreshed Microsoft DST 2007 site. (See here for more details.) And the updates for computers with currently supported operating systems are available now on Automatic Update. 

Another question: “why are you spending so much of your blog on this issue?”

Well, the daylight saving time change over this year is important and timely, and we want our customers and partners to be aware of the changes. Overall, it’s not just Microsoft products that are impacted, but products from many companies that reference or utilize date and time information in the applications and services.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Vista, Windows, SBS, Daylight Saving Time, DST.