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Daylight Saving Time Change

March 2nd, 2007

As most of you may know, this year daylight saving time starts on March 11th instead of in April. The change is due to the US Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extends daylight saving time by a month, starting this year. Daylight saving time now begins on the second Sunday of March and ends the first Sunday of November. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour.

For those of you using a Windows operating system, Microsoft has released an update which will adjust your time accordingly. Windows Vista does not require any update to be installed for the DST changes. However applications running on Windows Vista may need to be updated (e.g. Outlook, etc.). If you are using Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 the update can be downloaded through Windows Update. If you have automatic updates enabled you may already have the patch installed. You can confirm by navigating to start -> control panel -> add or remove programs -> check the box next to show updates at the top of the window -> scroll to the bottom and look for Update for Windows XP (KB931836). For more information on the update, you can view the knowledge base entry here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836/

Those who have not installed SP2 or are using previous versions of Windows are no longer supported and will not be receiving the update. Thus you will have to make the adjustments manually. Microsoft has a Time Zone Editor program (TZEDIT) that will allow you to adjust Daylight Saving Times (DST) settings for computers running Windows 98/ME/NT/2000. You may download the file direct from Microsoft: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/8/a/58a208b7-7dc7-4bc7-8357-28e29cdac52f/tzedit.exe

Other Microsoft products will require an update, so please visit the Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center. http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

Certain versions of the Mac OS will also require an update. You will find more info here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056

If you use Linux you can go to the support web site of the company or organization that provides your Linux distribution.

The problem goes beyond Microsoft and other software. Think of all the routers, alarms, cell phones, handhelds, locks, thermostats, and everything else that a home or business might have that could be affected by this. Be sure to make a list and implement the changes now in order to avoid potential headaches.

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