Daylight Savings Time Early this year, Patch Your PC Now

In case you haven't heard, daylight savings is early this year and starts on March 11, 2007. Remember the Y2k scare? Well it is not that bad, but your systems needed to be updated so everything will go smooth. Here is what you need to do.

One of the fist patches that should be applied is the Microsoft patches for Windows XP, and for Windows Server 2003. The patch for Windows XP can be downloaded here (the version for 64bit XP is here), and the Windows Server 2003 patch can be downloaded here (the version for X64bit server is here and the version for Itanium 2003 systems is here).
These are standard Microsoft patches that can fully fit in with your standard patching methodology. It can be deployed via WSUS, or many other patch distribution packages. It can also be installed by an administrator without the need for a reboot, which is very useful in shops where patches are applied manually. You will want to check to make sure this patch (KB931836) is set for distribution, as it is not listed as a critical update. If you only typically push or install critical updates then you may need to manually add this patch to your systems. It should also be noted that the patch for Windows XP requires XP SP2 to be installed, if you have not already done so.
If you are still running Windows 2000 you will have to do a bit more work for the time change. Microsoft has released KB article 914387 which outlines the process you must go to for the change. There are two methods by which you can change the time zone for Windows 2000 (Professional and Server). The first is to download the TZEdit tool from Microsoft. Once installed, you can run this tool (it installs by default to c:\Program Files\TZEdit\) to manually create and change your time zones. This method will require you to manually change every computer. While this is not a major task if you only have a few Windows 2000, it can be quite daunting if you have a large number of systems to update.
The second method provided by Microsoft for updating Windows 2000 is a combination of a registry edit and a VBS script. These are both available here, though you must copy the text for each of them and save them locally with the proper file extensions (.reg and .vbs respectively). You must then import the registry settings change (by double clicking the .reg file you created), then run the vbs script to perform the update. This process can easily be automated.

Ok, you should be all set!

Computer Gal