New Zealand 2007 Daylight Saving Changes : Windows

New Zealand time zone differs between Windows Vista and down-level Windows OSes - 1st of January is approaching!

nzdst — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:24:00 GMT

Hi All,

We sent this information out in September during the mad rush of customers preparing for the Daylight Savings change, however this may have fallen off the radar for customers running Vista and Outlook. Customers running Windows Vista and Outlook will need to rebase their calendars again after the 1st of January (and as close to the 1st of January as possible).

Please refer to this post for more information
- http://blogs.msdn.com/nzdst/archive/2007/09/20/new-zealand-time-zone-differs-between-windows-vista-and-down-level-windows-oses.aspx

Nick.

December 2007 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

nzdst — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:53:00 GMT

Hi All,

This update supersedes and replaces update 933360, which was released in August 2007. This update also includes additional time zone changes that were signed in to law after update 933360 was created. If you have already deployed update 933360, read the descriptions of the specific time zone changes that are addressed in this Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article to determine whether you must deploy this update immediately. If systems are not directly affected, you can schedule deployment at the next available opportunity. We recommend that you deploy the most current Windows cumulative time zone update to guarantee the consistency of the time zone database on all systems.

Important Before you apply the update that is described in this article, be aware of potential issues that may affect Microsoft Office Outlook. For more information about these issues, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

931667 How to address the daylight saving time changes in 2007 by using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

Important

•

If you are running Microsoft Exchange Server in an Information Technology (IT) environment, you must take additional measures to guarantee the correct operation of Exchange Server. For more information about the Exchange daylight saving time (DST) update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

941018 How to address daylight saving time by using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

•

Cumulative time zone updates contain only data that has changed for a specific region or that has been added to maintain parity with other operating system versions. Therefore, if a time zone key has been deleted, some original values may not be restored after you apply the cumulative zone update. We do not recommend that you delete any registry keys that are related to time zones. On a computer that has incomplete time zone keys, first restore the time zone keys from a known good backup. Then, apply the update.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/942763

The above packages will be pushed out via Windows Update 11 of December (US Pacific Time) and when Custom Support Agreement packages will be available via connect.

Nick.

NZ Daylight Savings change: Impact to Citrix customers

nzdst — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:59:00 GMT

Hi All,

The following information was supplied by Andrew McPherson on the 24th of September 2007 by Citrix.

New Zealand has announced a 3 week extension to the daylight saving period from September 2007. Daylight saving now commences on the last Sunday in September and ends on the first Sunday in April. Further information is available on the Department of Internal Affairs web site.

The information below is provided to assist customers in planning for the upcoming change. As you prepare for these changes, Citrix recommends that you follow the guidelines provided by the vendors of products that you use in conjunction with Citrix products.

Citrix Presentation Server
Details on the updates available for Microsoft products can be found here.

The Presentation Server Console (also known as the Citrix Management Console) relies on the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) provided by Sun Microsystems. Refer to the table below for the JRE update method required for your Citrix Presentation Server version. Note that JRE major versions should not be upgraded. For example, do not attempt to upgrade the JRE from version 1.4.x_x to 1.5.x_x as the Citrix Management Console does not recognise the upgraded major version. The latest version of the TZupdater tool includes the new time zone data for New Zealand.

Citrix Version	Version of Sun JRE (Java) shipped	Suggested JRE
Citrix Presentation Server 4.5	1.5.0_09	Use the TZupdater tool, because there is no acceptable JRE version to upgrade. (Limited testing performed)
Citrix Presentation Server 4.0	1.4.2_06	1.4.2.15 (Limited testing performed)
Citrix Presentation Server 4.0, 64-bit Edition	1.4.2_06	1.4.2.15 (Limited testing performed)
Citrix Presentation Server 3.0	1.4.1_02	Use the TZupdater tool, because there is no acceptable JRE version to upgrade. (Limited testing performed)
MetaFrame XP - Feature Release 3	1.4.1	Use the TZupdater tool, because there is no acceptable JRE version to upgrade. Note that MetaFrame XP has reached end of life and has not been tested with the latest TZupdater tool.
MetaFrame XP - Feature Release 2	1.3.0	There is no acceptable JRE version to upgrade and the TZupdater tool does not work on v1.3.
MetaFrame X - Feature Release 1	1.3.0	There is no acceptable JRE version to upgrade and the TZupdater tool does not work on v1.3.

Citrix Access Gateway
Standard - Citrix has released a patch - please click here for further details. The fix will also be incorporated in future Access Gateway Standard releases.
Advanced - No action required.
Enterprise - Customers should contact Citrix directly (requires a current support agreement) or their Citrix Solution Advisor.

Citrix EdgeSight
No hotfixes are required, however a manual change will need to be made in the EdgeSight Console. Simply select the checkbox when commencing daylight saving and deselect when ending daylight saving.

Citrix NetScaler
Customers with active maintenance are able to download a specific fix for New Zealand here. This page will prompt users to enter a MyCitrix login that is tied to an active maintenance agreement.

Citrix WANScaler
An update for the New Zealand daylight saving change is included in the 4.1.5.0 release. Steps to download this release from MyCitrix.com are set out below.

1. Go to www.mycitrix.com and enter in credentials.

2. Navigate to Support | Downloads | Firmware

3. Click on the Citrix WANScaler Software Release 4.1.5 link

4. Click Get Software on version Citrix WANScaler 4.1.5 64-bit

5. Copy the *.bin patch file to your desktop

6. Via the WANScaler GUI, use the Update Software page under System Tools to upgrade the software by pointing to the *.bin file

7. Wait for the firmware to properly upload and the system will prompt for a reboot after 500 seconds. Click yes and after the reboot, the upgrade will be complete.

Customers with current support agreements can contact Citrix Technical Support for further assistance if required on telephone: 0800 930 700. Others should contact their Citrix Solution Advisor or Citrix representative.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew McPherson
APAC Technical Support Manager
Citrix Systems Asia Pacific Pty Ltd

New Zealand time zone differs between Windows Vista and down-level Windows OSes

nzdst — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:35:00 GMT

Introduction

Windows encodes the time zone transition dates on a yearly basis yielding the following rules for years 2006, 2007, and 2008:

	DST End	DST Start
2006	Third Sunday in March	First Sunday in October
2007	Third Sunday in March	Last Sunday in September
2008	First Sunday in April	Last Sunday in September

The definition of the New Zealand time zone differs between Windows Vista and down-level Windows OSes. Specifically, the difference between OSes relates to which time zone rule each OS returns as the currently active rule; Vista returns the 2007 rule shown in the table above while other Windows OSes return the 2008 rule.

This difference exists because Vista is designed to keep the 2007 rule as the active rule until December 31st, at 11:59:59PM. At midnight, January 1st , Vista will automatically activate the 2008 rule. Previous OSes such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not have the capability to automatically switch rules, so after the time zone patch under KB 933360 is applied; they make the 2008 rule active.

This inconsistency causes user-visible differences in the functioning of the Outlook Calendar on Vista versus non-Vista OSes. The below is intended to explain the end-user visible affects as well as provide some guidance on how to best plan for rebasing calendars in this region.

Example

In the following example, two weekday recurring appointments were created on fully patched OSes. Both computers had the current time zone set to New Zealand and both created the appointments such that they occurred from 12:00pm to 12:30pm local time. In the screen shots below, the green series was created on a down-level OS (and, therefore, encoded using the 2008 time zone rules for New Zealand) while the red series was created on Vista (and, therefore, encoded using the 2007 time zone rules for New Zealand).

As can be seen in the table above, this means that the two recurrences differ by how they were encoded between the third Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April. To illustrate the issue, let us now display the items on the two different machines:

Down-level OS

On the down-level OS, the 2008 New Zealand rule is in force and, therefore, daylight savings time ends on April 6th. This means that the item encoded in 2008 rules continues to occur at noon but the item encoded with 2007 rules now appears an hour too late since it was encoded under the expectation that daylight savings time is no longer in force.

The discrepancy continues until we get to the first Sunday in April, at which point both appointments return to their intended local time.

Windows Vista

When viewed on Vista, exactly the same appointments in the same store look different. Again, everything agrees except for the “delta” between the third Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April only, on Vista, it is the item encoded with 2007 rules that continues to look correct while the item encoded in 2008 rules now looks an hour early because it was encoded under the expectation that daylight savings time would continue and the Calendar is being displayed as if it does not.

As above, the discrepancy continues until we get to the first Sunday in April, at which point both appointments return to their intended local time.

Outlook Calendar Rebasing

The Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook is aware of the above discrepancy and attempts to handle it as correctly as possible. Specifically, the client-side tool will detect the OS on which it is running and behave as expected on the assumption that all appointments were created on that OS. Some examples (assuming a fully patched machine in all cases):

• When run on Vista during 2007 with the time zone set to New Zealand, the tool will assume that any appointments that lack time zone information were created using the 2006 rules and will transition all appointments to the 2007 rules.
• When run on Vista during 2008 with the time zone set to New Zealand, the tool will assume that any appointments that lack time zone information were created using the 2007 rules and will transition all appointments to the 2008 rules.
• When run on a down-level OS in either 2007 or 2008, the tool will assume that any appointments that lack time zone information were created using 2006 rules and will transition them directly to the 2008 rules.
It is worth noting that, in all versions of Outlook, all recurrences are stamped with time zone information and, therefore, there is no ambiguity in behaviour. Single instance items, on the other hand, are not stamped with time zone information on Outlook 2003 SP2 and earlier so, in such cases, care will have to be taken to review the times of all single-instance appointments to ensure that the updated calendar items are correct.

All of the behaviour described above is specific to the latest version of the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook and the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool. Previous versions of both tools do not behave properly in time zones such as New Zealand so users/administrators should be sure to have the latest versions of the appropriate rebasing tool before starting. The latest versions of the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook and the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool along with supporting documentation can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931667 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941018 respectively.

Mitigations

Here are some things to think about as you consider your plans for rebasing Calendars in the New Zealand time zone:
• It is beneficial to rebase a calendar on the OS from which the majority of single instance items were created (although care still needs to be taken to ensure that the correct updates were applied).
• In the case of Vista, users will have to rebase their Calendar a second time in January of 2008. It is recommended that this rebasing be done as early in 2008 as possible so as to avoid user confusion as late March and early April approach.
• If using the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool, the above logic applies to the machine from which the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool was run (i.e. that machine should be chosen such that it matches the most common OS deployed across the company and a second rebasing will have to be scheduled if users create appointments using Vista).

Conclusion

There are three end-user visible side-effects to the interaction of the Outlook Calendar and the definition of the New Zealand time zone on various Windows OSes:
1. When looking at appointments in late March or early April, there will be a discrepancy between the local time at which the appointments appear to start and end.
2. Users that only use down-level OSes to create/edit items on their Calendar need to rebase only once, during the fall of 2007.
3. Users that use Vista to create/edit items on their Calendar will need to rebase twice: once in the fall of 2007 and again in January of 2008 in order to transition any items encoded using the 2007 time zone rules into the 2008 time zone rules. Once this step is successfully completed, anomalies such as the above should simply disappear.

We greatly appreciate the assistance and feedback that Graham Codd provided on this issue.

Nick.

Automation of rolling out NZ DST Patch for Windows 2000

nzdst — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:36:00 GMT

Hi All,

After receiving a few queries about our automation information in the Guidance document (Section 10) - and some issues with the formatting in the PDF file, I have placed the registry file and automation script on a site for you to download.

914387_reg_export.txt - rename to TZupdate.reg

914387_update_script.txt - rename to refreshTZinfo.vbs

Please refer to the guidance document for the process and sequence.

Many thanks,

Nick.

Windows Mobile 5 DST patch did not change to the right date

nzdst — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:04:00 GMT

Hi All,

Here is a product support case that was raised last week here in New Zealand that I thought I would share with you, it is of particular interest if you are using Windows Mobile 5 and the Telecom Apache device.

Action:
================
Device is a Telecom Apache - HTC Innovation PA10A About: Windows Mobile 5.0 OS 5.1.195 Build 14928.2.2.0
Downloaded Time Zone patch from http://www.microsoft.com/nz/msdn/timezone/itpro.mspx and selected 5.0 (PPC & SP) which is a link to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d9c64531-6621-4e33-9170-de9c1aaf71c3&DisplayLang=en

Response:
================
Installed Time Zone update. Sets clock to Sept 30th 1:59am and waits and.. it goes to 2:00am..

Cause:
================
The 'definition' Time Zone field is updated. The 'active' TZ registry field has not been updated.

Resolution:
================
Alter Time Zone to something else, then set to updated New Zealand setting, which loads it into 'active'

As per http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx#AdditionalSteps

On some Windows Mobile powered device the DST change may fail to initialize after applying the update. To ensure the DST update works properly on your device, the following steps should be taken:

After installing the update, change your default time zone value to any different value:
- To change time zone settings on your Pocket PC Phone, tap Start > Settings > System tab > Clock & Alarms > Select a time zone from drop down for Home settings and save settings by tapping OK
- To change time zone settings on your Smartphone, click Start > Settings > Clock & Alarm > Date and Time > Select a time zone from drop down and save settings by clicking Done
Change your time zone back to your default settings:
- Follow the instructions in step 1
- Note: your device will automatically return to the default local time zone if local network time is enabled on the device.

Nick.

NZ DST Guidance Document Updated

nzdst — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:01:00 GMT

This latest version of the NZ DST Guidance Document (version 1.3) is now available for download online here.

This includes updates to the following KB articles:

Windows (Vista, XP, Server 2003 SP1 & SP2 and Small Business Server 2003)
Sharepoint
Dynamics
SQL Notification Services

- New Version of TZMove

- Exchange Admin Server tool released

- Updating to Sequencing of patches (depending on your environment)

- Windows Mobile Installation

Nick.

Impact of Daylight Saving Changes on Office Outlook Calendar Items

nzdst — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:41:00 GMT

Exchange Calendar Update Tool

Note: This tool is currently in Beta, please read the KB article before using this tool.

The Exchange Calendar Update Tool, described in (KB941018) can be used to automate the adjustment of calendar items in a Microsoft Exchange Server environment.

Vista & Outlook 2003 Users

Important Update: If you run Outlook 2003 on Windows Vista you will need to rebase your calendar twice. Once before September 30th and the on or after January 1 2008, this applies for users where their mailboxes home timezone is New Zealand.

Manual Adjustment of Appointments

For older versions of Microsoft Outlook or if tools are not available for automatic adjustment, appointments which fall between the old and new daylight saving transition times can be checked and adjusted manually. It is suggested that a hard copy of the calendar for the entire new daylight saving period is made prior to applying a Windows time zone update so that the original times for appointments can be checked.

A second alternative to using the Time Zone Data Update Tool is to export appointments in the daylight saving period to a .csv file before applying the Windows time zone update. Delete the appointments in the daylight saving period, then re-import them

Manually Updating Microsoft Windows For Daylight Saving Changes

nzdst — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:38:00 GMT

Method 1: Use the Tzedit.exe utility to manually modify the time zone

The tzedit.exe utility, which is part of the Windows Resource Kit, can be used to set or change the start and the end dates for daylight saving for one or more time zones. TzEdit can be found here

For more information about Windows Resource kits, visit the Microsoft Windows Deployment and Resource Kits web site. The following example shows how to set start and end dates for New Zealand’s daylight savings.

Note that the end time for daylight saving is expressed in daylight saving time, not standard time.

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows Resource Kit, and then click Tools.

Double-click Alphabetical list of Tools, and then click Time Zone Editor.

Scroll through the list of time zones to locate the (GMT+12:00) Auckland, Wellington entry.
If the entry is not found:
Click New, and then type (GMT+12:00) Auckland, Wellington in the Time Zone Name box and follow the instructions below.
If the entry is found: Click on the entry, click Edit, then adjust the settings according to the instructions below

In the Abbreviation box, type New Zealand Standard Time.

In the Offset from GMT box, type +12:00.

Click to select the Automatically set daylight-saving time check box.

Follow these steps:

a.	In the first Start Day box, click Last.
b.	In the second Start Day box, click Sunday.
c.	In the third Start Day box, click September.
d.	In the fourth Start Day box, click 2:00 AM.
e.	In the first Last Day box, click First.
f.	In the second Last Day box, click Sunday.
g.	In the third Last Day box, click April.
h.	In the fourth Last Day box, click 3:00 AM.
i.	In the Abbreviation box, type New Zealand Daylight Time.
j.	In the Daylight Bias box, click +1:00 to set the clock forward 1 hour. By default, Daylight Bias is set to +1:00.

Click OK, and then quit Windows Time Zone Editor.

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

10.

Double-click Date/Time, and then click the Time Zone tab.

11.

Click (GMT+12:00) Auckland, Wellington and then click OK.

12.

Click to select the Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes check box, click Apply, and then click OK.

13.

To test that the new time zone setting will adjust for daylight savings as expected, change the time and date on your computer to several minutes before the time that you have set for the daylight-saving time changes. Verify that the daylight-saving time changes are correct when the change occurs.

Method 2: Update the Windows Registry Directly

Time zone entries in the Windows registry can be updated directly using a script file. This method is useful when more than one system needs to be updated, for example in a commercial environment.

1. Create a file named TimeZones.reg containing the update script (see below for examples).

2. Double-click the Timezones.reg file.

3. Click Yes when you are prompted to add information to the registry.

4. Click OK when you receive the message that the information was successfully entered in the registry.

5. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

6. Double-click Date/Time, and then click the Time Zone tab.

7. Click on the time zone you have just updated, and then click OK.

8. Click to select the Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes check box, click Apply, and then click OK.

Before updating your registry please back up any registry keys before proceeding.

Sample Script – New Zealand 2007 Daylight Saving Changes

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\New Zealand Standard Time]

"Display"="(GMT+12:00) Auckland, Wellington"

"Dlt"="New Zealand Daylight Time"

"Std"="New Zealand Standard Time"

"MapID"="78,79"

"Index"=dword:00000122

"TZI"=hex:30,fd,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,03,00,00,

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,05,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\New Zealand Standard Time\Dynamic DST]

"FirstEntry"=dword:000007d6

"LastEntry"=dword:000007d8

"2006"=hex:30,fd,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,03,00,00,00,03,00,03,00,

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,0a,00,00,00,01,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

"2007"=hex:30,fd,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,03,00,00,00,03,00,03,00,

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,05,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

"2008"=hex:30,fd,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,c4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,03,00,

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,05,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

Testing the update:

1.	Change the date/clock to September 30, 2007, 1:59am and verify that the clock advances one hour (instead of moving to 2am it moves to 3am). This is the new (2007) DST start date.
2.	Change the date/clock to October 7, 2007 at 1:59am and verify that the clock does not adjust for DST (Simply moves to 2am). This is the 2007 DST start date.
3.	Change the date/clock to March 16, 2008 at 1:59am and verify that the clock does not adjust for DST (Simply moves to 2am). This is the 2008 DST end date.
4.	Change the date/clock to April 6, 2008 at 2:59am and verify that the clock goes back one hour to 2:00am (instead of 3am). This is the new (2008) DST end date.