Australia Eastern & Central 2008 Daylight Saving Changes

Updated by Hugh Jones on 24^th April 2008

Commencing April 2008, Australia Eastern (New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania) and Central (South Australia) time zones extended daylight saving and harmonised start and end times. Daylight saving now commences on the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April in these states. See the Australian Government Time web site for more information.

This change affects Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Outlook and other Microsoft, third party and custom applications:

• All Microsoft Windows PC, server and mobile devices in the affected time zones must be updated to ensure accuracy of internal time zone tables and correct operation of the system clock.
• Microsoft Office Outlook calendars may need to be adjusted. Client and Server-based tools to automate this process are available (see 'Adjusting Office Outlook Calendars' below).
• Microsoft, third party and custom applications which schedule events at future dates should be reviewed to ensure they will operate correctly during the extended daylight saving period. Previously scheduled events may also need to be adjusted.
• Microsoft recommends that all PC and server systems are updated regardless of location to ensure consistency of operation.

A complete list of affected Microsoft products appears in the table below. Notes regarding specific products and updates appear below the table.  This information is updated as new information about products and updates becomes available.

Note that product updates only need to be applied once to ensure consistency with the changed start and end dates for a given time zone. It is not necessary to re-apply product updates at the start or end of subsequent daylight saving periods, provided there have been no changes to daylight saving rules in the meantime.  Similarly, once Outlook calendars have been rebased against the new daylight saving rules, further rebasing activity is not required.

The Australia 2008 Daylight Saving Planning Guide provides detailed guidance on preparing Microsoft solutions in complex environments for changes in daylight saving. Click on the links below to download the document in your preferred format:

• Australia Daylight Saving Planning Guide (Word)
• Australia Daylight Saving Planning Guide (XPS)
• Australia Daylight Saving Planning Guide (PDF)

For information on other daylight saving changes in Australia and New Zealand, click here. Refer to the Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Centre for further information on daylight saving, including the 2007 changes in North America. If you have any other questions about the daylight saving changes or require further assistance, contact Microsoft Help and Support.

Extended Hotfix Support (EHS)

Updates for products in Extended Support phase of the product lifecycle can only be obtained if the products are covered by Daylight Savings Time Extended Hotfix Support (DST EHS). If you have Premier Support, use products in the Extended Support phase of the product lifecycle and need the DST Hotfix for those products, contact your Technical Account Manager or Microsoft representative. Customers who do not have a managed support relationship with Microsoft can purchase DST EHS from Microsoft Customer Service (note that there is a cost associated with this offering).

DST EHS entitles customers to available DST updates for products in the Extended Support phase of the product lifecycle for the calendar year in which the agreement is purchased. (For example, if DST EHS is purchased on 1 April 2008, customers are entitled to updates through to 31 December 2008).

Windows Small Business Server 2003

You must install Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) before applying any of the time zone updates. Click here for more information and installation instructions. Note that SP1 includes Microsoft Exchange Server Service Pack 1, which must be installed. Once SP1 is installed, install KB942763 and KB944722 to apply time zone updates to the Windows Server and Exchange Server components respectively.

Manually Updating Windows

If you are unable to obtain an update for your version of Microsoft Windows, you can manually update the Windows registry to reflect the new daylight saving times. Click here for more information. The article will be updated soon to reflect the Australia Eastern and Central 2008 daylight saving changes.

Microsoft Office Outlook®

Updates for Microsoft Outlook are only required if applications which use the CDO interface to access time zone information are installed on the client PC. Installation of an Outlook update should only be performed if problems are observed subsequent to installation of the Windows operating system update. Note that for Outlook 2007, CDO is supplied as a separate download via the Microsoft Download Centre (search for 'CDO').

Adjusting Office Outlook Calendars

Microsoft Office Outlook uses time zone information maintained by the Windows operating system to calculate start times for future appointments when they are created or updated. When a time zone update is applied to Windows, existing appointments in extended daylight saving periods may be shifted by one hour. Refer to KB931667 for information, procedures and tools for adjusting Outlook and Exchange calendar items after a change in daylight saving times.

The following should be noted when updating a Microsoft Exchange Server environment:

• Calendar adjustment (rebasing) must be performed before applying the Exchange Server time zone update, otherwise it will not work.  If rebasing fails for this reason, uninstall the update, repeat the rebasing operation then re-install the update.
• There is a known issue with the Exchange Update Tool when the SystemPatchDate option is used.  If the tool fails with error code 0x80070057, re-run the update tool without the SystemPatchDate option.  Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information to KB941018 as it becomes available.

Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac

Microsoft Entourage 2004 relies on time zone information maintained by the underlying Mac OS operating system. Mac owners should refer to Apple technical support regarding the availability of time zone updates. The Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 Update includes an improvement for Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac which fixes a problem which causes calendar events to be displayed incorrectly after a time zone update is applied to the underlying operating system.

Note that product updates for Microsoft Office for Mac are cumulative.  It is recommended that you visit the Office 2004 download page for the latest product information and updates.

Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM v3.0

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook uses the CDO interface to interface with Microsoft Outlook. To ensure correct operation, apply the corresponding time zone updates to Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server after updating all host operating systems.

After applying a time zone update, appointments which fall within the new daylight saving period may be shifted by one hour. To fix this problem, either update the appointments manually and re-save them or adjust Outlook Office calendars according to the instructions above after applying the updates to the host operating system, the Outlook client and the Microsoft Exchange Server.

Windows® CE

Device owners should contact the device manufacturer to determine whether or not an update is available.

Microsoft Java Virtual Machine

The Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MS JVM) will sometimes apply an incorrect time zone rule after the daylight saving update is applied and the daylight saving transition has occurred. Because MSJVM reached end of life on 31st December 2007, no update is available for the Australia 2008 daylight saving changes. See http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/java/default.asp for further information.