Microsoft products do not reflect Australian daylight saving time changes for the year 2006

The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in March 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. Several Australian states have changed the daylight saving time transition end dates to the first Sunday of April 2006. These states include New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, and Tasmania.

The following currently supported Microsoft products use daylight saving time transition dates that do not allow for this change:

• Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
• Microsoft Outlook 2000
• Microsoft Outlook 2002
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
• Microsoft Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2000 Server
• Microsoft Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows CE
• Microsoft Windows Mobile
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
• Microsoft Windows 2000
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows XP

Systems that use these products in the affected states of Australia will not correctly reflect the new transition from daylight saving time on April 2, 2006. This problem will cause the time to be one hour off from the correct time on the affected systems.

Daylight Saving Time for 2006

For the year 2006 only, the official daylight saving time transition dates for each state in Australia are as follows. Note Clocks are advanced at 2 A.M. by one hour on the start day to become Summer Time. Clocks are wound back at 3 A.M. by one hour on the end day to become Standard Time.

The change to daylight saving time will affect the transition settings for the following time zone rules:

• (GMT + 10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
• (GMT + 10:00) Hobart
• (GMT+09:30) Adelaide

Programs that are built by using Microsoft Collaboration Data Objects (CDO), such as Microsoft Outlook Web Access, may not correctly reflect this change to the daylight saving time transition date. The change is not correctly reflected because CDO maintains an internal table to track time zone information. This table is not updated by using the changes that are made to the operating system time zone.

Note In the following sections, the "overlap period" is defined as the time period between the regular end of daylight saving time and the newly defined end of daylight saving time.

Implications for the use of Microsoft calendaring software

Any application that relies on the use of time zone information, such as calendaring software, will be affected by a change to the daylight saving time transition information. The following products all rely on the time zone information that is stored in the operating system to display the correct local start and end times for appointments. Because Outlook must maintain information about the time zone for which each appointment was created, some anomalies may still occur when the following products are used:

• Outlook 2000
• Outlook 2002
• Outlook 2003

Only appointments that are created after the new operating system time zone has been applied will be displayed as expected during the overlap period. Any appointments that are created before a new operating system time zone has been applied will be displayed incorrectly during the overlap period.

To avoid these problems, we recommend the following practices:

• Do not create appointments during the overlap period until after the operating system time zone has been updated.
• Modify any existing appointments that are created during the overlap period by using either of the following methods:
  • Export the appointments to a .csv file before you modify the operating system time zone. Delete existing appointments in the overlap period, and then re-import them after the operating system change. When you export information from your calendar to a .csv file, the local time is used. After the new time zone is added to the operating system, the local time in the .csv file is recalculated as Greenwich Mean Time (Coordinated Universal Time) by using the current time zone settings. For more information about how to change the time zone without changing appointment times in Outlook, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are listed at the end of this section.
  • Manually modify each appointment after the operating system time zone has been changed.
• Do not create future appointments in the overlap period in all successive years, until the operating system is back to the regular time zone.
• As soon as possible after the overlap period ends, change the operating system back to the correct time zone for your location.
• Modify any appointments that were created during the overlap period in successive years by using either of the following methods:
  • Export the appointments to a .csv file before you modify the operating system time zone, delete existing appointments in the overlap period, and then re-import them after the operating system change. For more information about how to change the time zone without changing appointment times in Outlook, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are listed at the end of this section.
  • Manually modify each appointment in the overlap period in each successive year after the operating system time zone has been changed back.

You may want to use the additional time zone feature in Outlook. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Preferences tab, and then click Calendar Options.
3. Click Time Zone.
4. Click to select the Show an additional time zone check box.
5. In the Label box, type a description.
6. In the Time zone box, list the time zone that you want to add.

With the additional time zone, meetings that were added before the operating system update will show at the correct start and end times as referenced by the regular time zone. Unfortunately, you cannot tell which appointments were created before the operating system time zone information was modified and which appointments were created after the modification.

Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Millennium Edition

Update information

An update has been created for the following products:

• Windows 2000
• Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows XP

The update will add new time zone rules to the registry. The time zones have been named as follows to make sure that they are clearly identified as only for the year 2006:

• (GMT+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (Commonwealth Games)
• (GMT+10:00) Hobart (Commonwealth Games)
• (GMT+09:30) Adelaide (Commonwealth Games)

Note This update is only in English. However, the solution has been tested successfully on some other language variants of Windows. If you use the update on other language variants, the time zone names will appear in English.

The update contains utilities that will help automate addition and removal of the new time zone. See the Readme.txt file and sample files that are supplied for more information. Make sure to review the Readme.txt file in the update package for known limitations, issues, and usage.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
Release Date: November 29, 2005

For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Note This time zone update must be re-applied after the installation of a service pack. For more information about any known issues, see the readme files that are contained in the download packages.

Update information for computers that do not have Microsoft Exchange installed

An update has been created for computers that are running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 and that do not have Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Collaboration Data Objects (CDO)-based programs installed. For more information about this update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Windows CE and mobile devices

For more information about a solution for this problem for Windows CE and for mobile devices, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft Collaboration Data Object and Outlook Web Access

Some programs use the time and date information that is stored in the operating system. Other programs maintain separate lists. This information is not easily changeable. Therefore, appointments that are created in the overlap period may be displayed incorrectly because of this problem.

Update information

An update has been created for the CDO components of Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and Microsoft CRM 1.2

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and Microsoft CRM 1.2 use internal time zone information. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Notes

• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0-based platforms (MIPS, Intel, and Alpha) have not been included in this update.
• This hotfix has received exhaustive testing on the English versions of Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. However, because of the large number of available applications and products, we cannot test all possible interactions.
• Limited testing on some non-English versions of Windows XP has been performed successfully. If the update is used on other language versions, the time zone string names will appear in English.
• Utilities in the update are supplied as is and are subject to resource kit support limitations.
• Precautions should be taken before you implement full production. These precautions may include full systems backups, emergency repair disk creation, and off-line testing.
• If you use a Web-based solution or a third-party e-mail or calendaring solution, you must contact your supplier for support for time zone related issues.
• Currently, there is no solution available for the following products:
  • Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5
  • Microsoft Outlook for Macintosh
  • Microsoft Schedule+

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