Daylight Savings Time Changes – The Affect On Your Computer Systems

As you may be aware, Daylight Savings Time is now on a new schedule. DST will start on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual. As a result, any of your systems that rely upon an accurate date and time must be updated in order to address this issue.
What may be affected?

Definite (Microsoft Exchange server and/or Microsoft Outlook):

  • Email will be stamped with the wrong time
  • Appointments and reminders will be set with the incorrect time

Potential:

  • Calendar oriented and time sensitive applications may not work properly
  • Payroll applications and others that manage or track transactions will be incorrect

There a number of Non-Microsoft applications that may be affected by this new change. Each application must be evaluated to determine any possible impact.
Action Plan:

It is imperative that your systems are updated prior to March 11, 2007.

A special software “patch” is required to update all affected systems. There are a number of Microsoft updates that must be applied to both servers and workstations. Microsoft applications that are currently supported by Microsoft have patches available that fix this update.

 

Please visit the Microsoft Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

 

Applications that have reached end of life, such as Windows NT 4.0, do not have patches available, but can still be corrected manually.

Please note that non-Microsoft applications that run on Windows may be adversely affected by these updates, and as such, may require patches as well.

As always, any updates to software should be supervised and/or installed by a trained IT professional.

These updates should be performed at a time that will not disrupt your business processes should there be a conflict.
How Net at Work can Assist:

Net at Work has brought on additional resources to assist our clients prepare for this change. Our current course of action involves corrections for all Microsoft applications, non-Microsoft software applications, servers, desktops, Blackberries and smartphones.

If you would like assistance or have questions about these updates, please contact your client care representative or call 212- NETWORK (638- 9675)