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Dear Valued Microsoft Customer,
This year Daylight Saving Time (DST) extends by approximately four weeks. In compliance with this provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST dates in the United States and Canada will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November).
In some instances, effort will be required to accommodate the new DST legislation. For example, systems and applications may need to be updated directly, while in other circumstances the application may inherit the date and time information from the underlying system.
Microsoft is committed to helping customers that are affected by the DST changes make this transition as seamless as possible. Microsoft is producing updates for Windows products as well as other Microsoft products affected by the new U.S. statute. These updates will be released through technical support channels including Microsoft Customer Service & Support (CSS), as well as online channels such as Windows Update and Microsoft Update.
Details of the updates for Microsoft Windows and affected Microsoft applications, how customers can acquire them and when they will be available can be found on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/dst2007. Corresponding technical Knowledge Base articles are linked from this website as well.
Microsoft is providing the Time Zone updates at no-cost for customers on Windows platforms that are covered by Mainstream Support. For more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy including options available for products in Extended Support, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
Daylight Time changes may confuse things
As you might know, U.S. changed the official beginning date for Daylight Saving Time to March 11 this year instead of in April. As a result, everybody needs to update their computers, either manually or with a patch.
While Microsoft has patches available for Windows XP and newer Windows systems, for some odd reason the company hasn't released any updates for the millions upon millions of systems that still run Windows 2000 and previous versions of Windows. Therefore, we must rely on other methods to implement the correct settings in our operating systems.
Fortunately, there is at least some help available. Head over to Microsoft's site and read "How to configure daylight savings time for the United States in 2007" (KB article 914387). Be sure to follow the steps careful to avoid messing up your systems.
Further down in the paid version of today's newsletter, Susan Bradley's column, below, has more detailed information on fixing your systems for the changes in DST.
MS charges $4K for W2K daylight patch
Susan Bradley By Susan Bradley
This week, Microsoft declared a sale on Daylight Saving Time patches for Windows 2000, for those of you who are still running that platform.
In other news, I'm going to spend a lot of this week's column on patches that are rated "nonsecurity" but could have a great impact on you and your business none the less.
Windows 2000 DST patches on sale now!
The biggest news for the business world this week is that Microsoft has changed the price tag for its Daylight Saving Time (DST) patches for Windows 2000. While this version of Windows is still being supported for security patches, Microsoft has ended support for nonsecurity patches.
A DST fix is needed by all Windows 2000 machines to ensure that they'll adapt to the correct time on whatever date your state or province shifts to Daylight Time. These dates have recently changed by law in the U.S., Australia, and other countries.
Maintaining the correct time on servers can be extremely important in certain environments. A download for this issue, however, was deemed by MS to be a nonsecurity patch.
The Redmond company does, in fact, have a patch for Windows 2000 machines. But some firms reported that they were being charged $40,000 per site for the patch.
Microsoft employee James Senior blogged recently that the price tag has been cut to a mere $4,000. If that still sounds like a lot to you (it sure does to me), you can still use the TZedit.exe time-zone tool from Microsoft's resource kit to change the DST start and end dates in your area. I describe this in more detail for you below.
I'd argue that Microsoft shouldn't charge for such an important patch at all. But, at least for large enterprises that can afford it, the price tag is now a lot less than it used to be.
Outlook is the biggest DST troublemaker
Microsoft Outlook seems to have the biggest problems with Daylight Saving Time issues. Pay special attention to your Outlook Calendars. If you book appointments with people in a U.S. time zone, and you haven't applied the patch or otherwise worked around the problem, your calendars could be an hour off.
IT admins need to search Microsoft.com for KB 930879, which wasn't online as I was writing this but should be available around Feb. 1. (If the article hasn't been posted yet, the link in the preceding sentence will lead to an error page.)
Outlook admins should also read up on a Microsoft tool that's mentioned in KB 931667. This tool adjusts the time of the appointments made during the U.S.'s new Daylight Saving Time changeover period, which now occurs in March, not April.
One way to ensure that, no matter what happens, your appointments will be understandable to everyone is to put the start time of each appointment into its Subject line. That provides a visual reminder to your invitees of the time you agreed on, and someone may spot a server time error that you may not have caught.
How to patch all of your DST bits
Most home users could live with the time clocks on their computers being an hour out of sync with the real time. The real impact of the new U.S. dates for Daylight Saving Time is in business appointments.
Even if you don't live in the United States, you'll be affected if you interact with folks who do. Microsoft employee Eileen Brown provides on her blog a plan of action for those who must support the following apps: Windows, Outlook, Exchange (mail server), and Sharepoint (document management). All of the various patches are being tracked on Microsoft's main DST page.
Here's a reading list of bulletins that affect various platforms. This will help you prepare for the new start and end dates for DST in the U.S. and elsewhere:
• Windows. KB 928388.
• Exchange. KB 926666, and there's more on the Ehlo blog.
• Sharepoint. KB 924881.
• Windows Mobile phones. KB 923593.
Consumers need to pay attention to patches for Windows, Outlook, and Windows Mobile. If you have a phone based on Windows Mobile 3 or 5, I'd recommend downloading a .cab file (here's the download link) to your phone and applying it.
The .cab file is discussed in the Windows Mobile blog. The .cab file inserts the necessary Registry entries recommended by KB 923953.
According to HIED West Technology Briefings, Microsoft will release a desktop utility on Feb. 9 to update devices running Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003, and Pocket PC 2002. (Windows Mobile 6 doesn't need a patch.)
And don't forget Macintosh's need for patching, too. Both the Mac operating system and Entourage will need patches, as per this Microsoft blog.
The time-zone upheaval could be worse
In Israel, they've been battling time issues for decades. Every year, the Knesset codifies Daylight Saving Time to begin on a different date and a different day of the week. Steven Teiger, an SBS MVP who's located in Israel, prepared a useful document detailing what admins must do every time the government changes the beginning and ending dates of DST.
Microsoft Israel points to an unsupported Daylight Saving Time update tool that it uses to fix time issues in that country. Fortunately for those of us in the U.S., our DST laws don't ordinarily change that often!
MS06-061 and MS06-071 (925672 and 927978)
Are you getting the XML patch repeatedly?
Fellow security MVP Steve Wechsler recently blogged about issues he's been seeing with two of last year's XML patches. MS06-061 (925672) and MS06-071 (927978), he says, won't install properly and are repeatedly offered for installation.
The method he recommends to fix this? Uninstall the patches and reinstall them from scratch.
MS07-003 (925938)
Outlook patch impacts Microsoft CRM
If you use Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program, you may have found that it crashes after you install MS07-003 (925938).
There's now a patch for the patch, as described in KB 931270. The patch is available for free by calling Microsoft Product Support and indicating that you need this patch.
This year Daylight Saving Time (DST) extends by approximately four weeks. In compliance with this provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST dates in the United States and Canada will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November).
In some instances, effort will be required to accommodate the new DST legislation. For example, systems and applications may need to be updated directly, while in other circumstances the application may inherit the date and time information from the underlying system.
Microsoft is committed to helping customers that are affected by the DST changes make this transition as seamless as possible. Microsoft is producing updates for Windows products as well as other Microsoft products affected by the new U.S. statute. These updates will be released through technical support channels including Microsoft Customer Service & Support (CSS), as well as online channels such as Windows Update and Microsoft Update.
Details of the updates for Microsoft Windows and affected Microsoft applications, how customers can acquire them and when they will be available can be found on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/dst2007. Corresponding technical Knowledge Base articles are linked from this website as well.
Microsoft is providing the Time Zone updates at no-cost for customers on Windows platforms that are covered by Mainstream Support. For more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy including options available for products in Extended Support, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.
Daylight Time changes may confuse things
As you might know, U.S. changed the official beginning date for Daylight Saving Time to March 11 this year instead of in April. As a result, everybody needs to update their computers, either manually or with a patch.
While Microsoft has patches available for Windows XP and newer Windows systems, for some odd reason the company hasn't released any updates for the millions upon millions of systems that still run Windows 2000 and previous versions of Windows. Therefore, we must rely on other methods to implement the correct settings in our operating systems.
Fortunately, there is at least some help available. Head over to Microsoft's site and read "How to configure daylight savings time for the United States in 2007" (KB article 914387). Be sure to follow the steps careful to avoid messing up your systems.
Further down in the paid version of today's newsletter, Susan Bradley's column, below, has more detailed information on fixing your systems for the changes in DST.
MS charges $4K for W2K daylight patch
Susan Bradley By Susan Bradley
This week, Microsoft declared a sale on Daylight Saving Time patches for Windows 2000, for those of you who are still running that platform.
In other news, I'm going to spend a lot of this week's column on patches that are rated "nonsecurity" but could have a great impact on you and your business none the less.
Windows 2000 DST patches on sale now!
The biggest news for the business world this week is that Microsoft has changed the price tag for its Daylight Saving Time (DST) patches for Windows 2000. While this version of Windows is still being supported for security patches, Microsoft has ended support for nonsecurity patches.
A DST fix is needed by all Windows 2000 machines to ensure that they'll adapt to the correct time on whatever date your state or province shifts to Daylight Time. These dates have recently changed by law in the U.S., Australia, and other countries.
Maintaining the correct time on servers can be extremely important in certain environments. A download for this issue, however, was deemed by MS to be a nonsecurity patch.
The Redmond company does, in fact, have a patch for Windows 2000 machines. But some firms reported that they were being charged $40,000 per site for the patch.
Microsoft employee James Senior blogged recently that the price tag has been cut to a mere $4,000. If that still sounds like a lot to you (it sure does to me), you can still use the TZedit.exe time-zone tool from Microsoft's resource kit to change the DST start and end dates in your area. I describe this in more detail for you below.
I'd argue that Microsoft shouldn't charge for such an important patch at all. But, at least for large enterprises that can afford it, the price tag is now a lot less than it used to be.
Outlook is the biggest DST troublemaker
Microsoft Outlook seems to have the biggest problems with Daylight Saving Time issues. Pay special attention to your Outlook Calendars. If you book appointments with people in a U.S. time zone, and you haven't applied the patch or otherwise worked around the problem, your calendars could be an hour off.
IT admins need to search Microsoft.com for KB 930879, which wasn't online as I was writing this but should be available around Feb. 1. (If the article hasn't been posted yet, the link in the preceding sentence will lead to an error page.)
Outlook admins should also read up on a Microsoft tool that's mentioned in KB 931667. This tool adjusts the time of the appointments made during the U.S.'s new Daylight Saving Time changeover period, which now occurs in March, not April.
One way to ensure that, no matter what happens, your appointments will be understandable to everyone is to put the start time of each appointment into its Subject line. That provides a visual reminder to your invitees of the time you agreed on, and someone may spot a server time error that you may not have caught.
How to patch all of your DST bits
Most home users could live with the time clocks on their computers being an hour out of sync with the real time. The real impact of the new U.S. dates for Daylight Saving Time is in business appointments.
Even if you don't live in the United States, you'll be affected if you interact with folks who do. Microsoft employee Eileen Brown provides on her blog a plan of action for those who must support the following apps: Windows, Outlook, Exchange (mail server), and Sharepoint (document management). All of the various patches are being tracked on Microsoft's main DST page.
Here's a reading list of bulletins that affect various platforms. This will help you prepare for the new start and end dates for DST in the U.S. and elsewhere:
• Windows. KB 928388.
• Exchange. KB 926666, and there's more on the Ehlo blog.
• Sharepoint. KB 924881.
• Windows Mobile phones. KB 923593.
Consumers need to pay attention to patches for Windows, Outlook, and Windows Mobile. If you have a phone based on Windows Mobile 3 or 5, I'd recommend downloading a .cab file (here's the download link) to your phone and applying it.
The .cab file is discussed in the Windows Mobile blog. The .cab file inserts the necessary Registry entries recommended by KB 923953.
According to HIED West Technology Briefings, Microsoft will release a desktop utility on Feb. 9 to update devices running Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003, and Pocket PC 2002. (Windows Mobile 6 doesn't need a patch.)
And don't forget Macintosh's need for patching, too. Both the Mac operating system and Entourage will need patches, as per this Microsoft blog.
The time-zone upheaval could be worse
In Israel, they've been battling time issues for decades. Every year, the Knesset codifies Daylight Saving Time to begin on a different date and a different day of the week. Steven Teiger, an SBS MVP who's located in Israel, prepared a useful document detailing what admins must do every time the government changes the beginning and ending dates of DST.
Microsoft Israel points to an unsupported Daylight Saving Time update tool that it uses to fix time issues in that country. Fortunately for those of us in the U.S., our DST laws don't ordinarily change that often!
MS06-061 and MS06-071 (925672 and 927978)
Are you getting the XML patch repeatedly?
Fellow security MVP Steve Wechsler recently blogged about issues he's been seeing with two of last year's XML patches. MS06-061 (925672) and MS06-071 (927978), he says, won't install properly and are repeatedly offered for installation.
The method he recommends to fix this? Uninstall the patches and reinstall them from scratch.
MS07-003 (925938)
Outlook patch impacts Microsoft CRM
If you use Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program, you may have found that it crashes after you install MS07-003 (925938).
There's now a patch for the patch, as described in KB 931270. The patch is available for free by calling Microsoft Product Support and indicating that you need this patch.
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