Daylight Savings Time is going to begin three weeks earlier this year. It’s a change that is the result of the Energy Policy Act, which was passed by Congress in August of 2005. It’s great because:

1. We get more daylight, for a longer period of time.
2. We will use less energy, that we would otherwise use to provide lighting in our homes.

From Wikipedia:

Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March instead of the current first Sunday of April. Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday of October.

This change has created a huge problem for Exchange administrators. Exchange 2003 has DST values built-in. So, it knows what days we will be springing forward and falling back. But that’s as of 2003. As a result of the Energy Policy Act, this year will be the first year of a significant change to DST values.

So what does this mean?

For the 3 week period in March/April that we will be springing forward an hour, all CALENDAR appointments, and time-related material in Exchange and all of its components will be pushed back an hour from their intended times.

Why is it such a big deal to me?

Microsoft has NOT YET RELEASED an effective fix for the issue! We’re talking about a policy that was put in place in 2005. That’s two years to develop a solution. Microsoft is working around the clock right now to get this thing out so they don’t lose a ton of STREET CRED in the business community.

A company I consult for does testing on all patches and fixes before implementing in a production environment. We don’t have anything to test. So as the DST date approaches, day by day, we get more concerned, and more angry that Microsoft let this one slip out of their hands.

My guess is they were spending too much time working on the Zune player and pushing Windows Vista out. Bummer, that stuff sucks!