Time might be sneaking up on you. If you live in the United States or Canada, you might be losing an hour sooner than anticipated. Beginning this year, daylight saving time is being extended by about four weeks in these two countries. Instead of starting the first Sunday in April and ending the last Sunday of October, daylight saving time will start the second Sunday of March (March 11 in 2007) and end the first Sunday of November (November 4 in 2007).

In anticipation of this daylight saving time extension, Microsoft has provided a time zone update for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. This update also includes a few other daylight saving time changes in other parts of the world. You can download the time zone update from the Microsoft article "2007 time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems." Alternatively, you can edit the registry in Windows 2003 and XP machines, following the instructions provided in the Microsoft article "How to configure daylight saving time for the United States in 2007."

To quickly determine whether a Windows 2003 or XP machine has been updated, you can use DST_Test.vbs, a script written by Scripting Pro VIP author Jim Turner. Starting on February 7, you can download DST_Test.vbs. (You don't need to be a Scripting Pro VIP subscriber to download this script.) To use DST_Test.vbs, you simply place the script on the machine you want to test and double-click it.

Another Scripting Pro VIP author, Chang Lu, has written the SetDSTDates.vbs script to automate the daylight saving time changes in Active Directory (AD) environments. This script works on not only Windows 2003 and XP machines but also Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional machines. Starting on February 14, this script will be available on the Scripting Pro VIP Web site. (You must be a Scripting Pro VIP subscriber to download this script.)