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Armenia cancels DST

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Disclaimer: The information in this document is written in response to an announcement by the government of Armenia about changes in the daylight saving time in Armenia for the year of 2012.

 

The steps provided in this bulletin were created to mitigate the impacts that the daylight saving time changes will cause for customers in Armenia. These are the impacts primarily anticipated at the time this document was written, and the effects that customers may face are not restricted to them.

 

Suggested actions on this document might receive additional testing and information described in this document may change without notice.

 

In addition, customers should be aware that further guidance may be provided at any time by Microsoft.

 

Special notes: The official decree cancelling DST in Armenia is published by the government on this page: parliament.am/legislation.php?sel=show&ID=4436

 

In an attempt to improve the country’s economy, the government of Armenia has cancelled Daylight Saving Time. This will result in the country staying on permanent ‘winter time’ and not moving an hour ahead on Sunday, March 25th 2012.

Since the new date published by the government is different from what was defined in the previous years, Windows-based computers will not correctly interpret the time after March 25th 2012.

 

Microsoft is not issuing an update for Windows at this time to address this change.
The recommendation is to move to an alternate time zone: 'Russian Standard Time' [DisplayName: “ (UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd”]
The native timezone for Armenia: 'Caucasus Standard Time' [DisplayName: “(UTC+04:00) Yerevan”] will be updated in the next cycle of cumulative timezone update for Windows (planned for August 2012).

 

 

Updating Windows and correcting Outlook calendars

General recommendations:

  • Ensure the latest cumulative update to daylight-saving-time (DST) and world timezones (TZ) for Windows is installed [Dec 2011 Update]. For more information about this cumulative DST and TZ update, visit support.microsoft.com/kb/2633952
  • Note that adjusting the computer’s clock manually may have adverse effects. This procedure is not supported by Microsoft.
  • Contact Microsoft Support prior to any modification if you are unsure about the steps to follow in order to be prepared for the Daylight Saving Time change in Armenia.

 

Changing Windows OS time zone to (UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd

 For Win7/WS08 R2, Vista/WS08 machines:

  1. Click the start menu, select ‘Run’ and type control timedate.cpl
  2. Click ‘Change time zone…’ button
  3. Select “(UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd” and click OK.

 For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 machines:

  1. Click the start button, select ‘Run’ and type control timedate.cpl
  2. Click ‘Time Zone’ tab and select “(UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd”

 

Automatically changing machine time zone to ‘(UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd)’ on Active Directory environments

Warning: If your domain has multiples site in different countries, make sure this solution is only deployed to machines located in Armenia. We recommend customers evaluate the alternatives and test before applying on production environments.

 

Note: Users running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will have to first install KB2556308 in order to to use the TZUtil.exe utility.

 

On Active Directory environments, administrators may want to automate the change of time zones to “(UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd)”. This section explains how to deploy this time zone change via startup script. These procedures need to be executed in a Domain Controller or another machine with Admin Tools installed.

After performing all the steps below, all machines need to be restarted to automatically change the computer time zone. To avoid restarting a specific machine, please execute the procedures ‘Changing Windows OS time zone’ above to move this machine to ‘(UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd)’ time zone.

 

Use a script to change the machine time zone to (UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd)

The script shown below can be used to change the current time zone to “(UTC +4:00) Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd)” on the client computer. The script also writes an event to the Application log of the client computer where the script was run.

 

  1. Copy/Paste the following code into a Notepad document. This VBS sample is only supported in Windows XP and Windows 2003.
 On Error Resume Next
strNewTimeZone = "Russian Standard Time"
Set objSh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Get the StandardName key of the current time zone
szStandardName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\StandardName")

'Enumerate the subkeys in the time zone database
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")
szTzsKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones"
objReg.EnumKey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, szTzsKeyPath, arrTzSubKeys

'Step through the time zones to find the matching Standard Name
szCurrentTzKey = "<Unknown>"
For Each subkey In arrTzSubKeys
      strTimeZoneStandarName = ""
      strTimeZoneStandarName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & subkey & "\Std")
    If (strTimeZoneStandarName = szStandardName) Then
        'Found matching StandardName, now store this time zone key name
        szCurrentTzKey = subkey
    End If
Next

Dim process, processid, result, strUpdateCommand
Set process = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2:Win32_process")

'Add time change privilege to the process object
process.Security_.Privileges.AddAsString "SeSystemTimePrivilege", True
strUpdateCommand = "control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z" & strNewTimeZone

'Launch control.exe to change time zone using the TZ key name stored in strNewTimeZone
result = process.Create(strUpdateCommand, Null, Null, processid)
If result <> 0 Then
    objSh.LogEvent 1, "Process to change machine time zone failed to execute on this computer. Unable to change machine time zone."
    wScript.Quit 0
End If

'Get the display name from previous time zone and compare with the new time zone
szPrevDispName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & szCurrentTzKey & "\Display")
szNewDispName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & strNewTimeZone & "\Display")

'Write entry to the Application event log stating that the update has executed
If szPrevDispName = szNewDispName Then
    objSh.LogEvent 4, "Machine time zone was refreshed. The current time zone is: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szNewDispName & "."
Else
    objSh.LogEvent 4, "Machine time zone was changed from: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szPrevDispName & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & "To: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szNewDispName & "."
End If
  1. Save the file as “ChangeTZ2012.vbs”.
  2. Double click the ChangeTZ2012.vbs to refresh time zone information.

Note:        Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure. However, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.

 

Deploying time zone changes using Group Policy

The script will test the Operating System version and apply the VBS described above on Windows XP and Windows 2003. For Windows 7/Server2008 R2 and Vista/Server2008, the script uses the TZUTIL.exe tool to change the time zone

  1. Copy/Paste the following lines into a Notepad document.

@echo off
ver |find /i "6.">nul
IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO SIX
cscript \\contoso.com\NETLOGON\ChangeTZ2012.vbs
GOTO End
:SIX
ver |find /i "6.0">nul
IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO Win
ver |find /i "6.1">nul
IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO Win
GOTO End
:Win
TZUTIL /G |Find /i "Caucasus Standard Time" >nul
IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO Armenia
GOTO End
:Armenia
TZUTIL /s "Russian Standard Time"
:End

Note:      You must replace the \\contoso.com notation above with the actual DNS domain name for your Active Directory domain.

  1. Save the file as "ChangeTZ2012.cmd".
  2. Copy the following files to the Netlogon share folder of the domain controller that holds the PDC emulator role in the domain: 
    ChangeTZ2012.cmd
    ChangeTZ2012.vbs
  3. Wait until Active Directory replication occurs. Also, wait until the files and folders in the system volume (SYSVOL) shared folder replicate to domain controllers in the domain. 
  4. Click Start, click Run, type control admintools, and then click OK. 
  5. Double-click Active Directory Sites and Services. 
  6. Select a site where the computers in Armenia are located. (Small environments may have only a site named ‘Default-First-Site-Name’).
  7. Right-click this site, and then click ‘Properties’.
  8. Click the Group Policy tab, click New, type DST Time Zone Change, and then press ENTER. 
  9. Click Edit. The Group Policy Object Editor tool starts.
  10. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Windows Settings, and then click Scripts (Startup/Shutdown). 
  11. Double-click Startup, and then click Add. 
  12. In the Script Name box, type the universal naming convention (UNC) path of the ChangeTZ2012.cmd file that is located in the Netlogon share. For example, type:
    \\contoso.com\NETLOGON\ChangeTZ2012.cmd
  13. Click OK two times.

 

Adjusting Outlook Calendars

When the time zone is moved to “(UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd", all Outlook calendar items from March 25th 2012 to October 28th 2012 will be displayed as occurring 1 hour earlier.

Options to correct your Outlook calendar in this scenario:

  • Manually modify each appointment on the affected period (March 25th 2012 to October 28th 2012) after the operating system time zone has been changed. See instructions in the section “How to manually modify Outlook Calendar items”

- or -

  • Customers may also opt to use the "Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool version 3.0" on the mode Permanent Time Zone Move to correct the Outlook calendar items. This procedure is explained below.

 

 

Special note: We recommend printing your calendar before any changes are made and review the calendar items to make sure these items appear at the correct times. You can use this printed copy of the calendar items to verify if Outlook has been updated successfully.

 

Using “Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool version 3.0” after a time zone move

The following describes the steps to be followed by users performing a time zone move:

  1. Download and run the installation package from here [32 bit], [64 bit]

  2. Go to Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office Outlook Tools, Time Zone Data Update Tool and Select "Permanent Time Zone Move Mode".

  3. Select “(UTC+04:00) Yerevan” from the “Original Time Zone:” drop down, and (UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd” for the “New Time Zone:” drop down and click OK.

    NOTE: As with standard time zone updates, the tool defaults to updating affected items on your Calendar and in your Reminders folder.  If you would like to update additional items (e.g. items in additional Calendars or a PST), you can do so by clicking the ‘Custom…’ button and manually selecting the target folder.

  4. The tool will inspect your mailbox and will report how many appointments will be moved. If you click “Details” the appointment list will appear and you will be able to select all (default) or some of the appointments. In a normal situation you will move all the appointments to the new time zone. Click “OK” in the following dialog to proceed moving the appointments. A log file “Outlook Time Zone Update .log” will be generated in the %temp% directory.

  5. Click "OK" to correct the calendar items listed.

  6. After moving Click “OK” again to close the tool.

  7. Review your calendar items from March 25th 2012 to October 28th 2012 and verify they are correctly updated.

 

How to manually modify Outlook Calendar items:

After you move from the Yerevan time zone to “(UTC+04:00) Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd", calendar items will be one hour off on the Delta Period, from March 25th 2012 to October 28th 2012.

A simpler alternative to correct the Outlook Calendar items is by adjusting the appointments manually. To do so:

  1. Start Outlook, and then open the Outlook calendar.
  2. Manually move each meeting that you organized so that they occur at the correct time.
  3. Send an update for each meeting that you moved to the meeting attendees. This action causes the calendar for each attendee to display the correct time for the meeting.
  4. Manually move each single-instance appointment.
  5. Manually move all recurring appointments that occur in the extended DST period.

 

Recommendations to minimize the impacts on Outlook/Exchange:

  • Simulate the changes on a lab environment, so you know what to expect.
  • Work in conjunction with the operating system team to update the time zone as soon as possible to minimize the chance of users creating new appointments during the delta period before the operating system DST dates get updated.
  • Before doing any change on the DST information, request users to print their schedule so they have a reference to follow in order to manually update the appointments later if needed.
  • Take a full online backup of your Exchange Servers in case you decide to use the Exchange Calendar Update Tool.
  • For meetings with multiple attendees, the meeting requestor alone should update the time and send an update.
  • Include the time of the meeting in the e-mail request so invitees can double check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 A.M. Yerevan Time").
  • When in doubt, verify the correct time with the organizer.

 

References

KB941018: How to address daylight saving time by using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

KB934001: A troubleshooting guide to the Exchange Calendar Update Tool (Msextmz.exe)

KB931667: How to address time zone changes by using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

KB943390: Some Outlook calendar items are rebased incorrectly when you use the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool to adjust for daylight saving time changes in certain time zones