Interim guidance for Egypt DST changes 2026

On April 24, 2026, Egypt will be observing DST changes. Earlier this month, Microsoft has identified an issue that affects Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Egypt between April 24 and April 30, 2026, inclusive of both dates. Calendar events and meeting times in Egypt will appear off by one hour for only certain Windows versions for the above-mentioned period. 

This is due to a calendar edge case: a five-week April in 2026. Certain Windows versions apply Egypt’s DST change on the last Thursday of April (April 30, 2026) instead of the officially mandated transition on April 24, 2026. Therefore, Egypt DST enforcement might be delayed by one week with a manual workaround available. Clocks will be correctly set to Egypt DST time zone on May 1, 2026 without any further intervention.  

The following platforms are impacted:

• Windows Server 2016
• This issue doesn’t impact any other in-support versions of Windows. 

The impact of this change on the affected platforms is as follows: 

1. Clocks will not be advanced by an hour at 12:00 a.m. on April 24, 2026, for the Egypt time zone until 12:00 a.m. on May 1, 2026. 
2. Clocks will be automatically advanced by an hour at 12:00 a.m. on May 01, 2026, for the Egypt time zone. 

Interim guidance 

In the meantime, we recommend that affected organizations with devices in Egypt use the following workaround. For enterprise bulk management of this workaround, please contact Microsoft Customer Support. 

 Verify whether your device is affected by this issue

• Select the Windows logo key, type "Date and time", and select Date and time settings. 
• If the date shown is April 24, 2026, then your device is unaffected.  No further action is needed. 
• Your device is affected if the Date and Time dialog box shows May 1, 2026 as the beginning of DST (reference picture attached below)

Manually update the registry key to set up Egypt time zone on the devices

For affected devices, you can choose a temporary workaround. Manually update the registry key as follows. 

1. Open the command prompt as administrator and run the following command: 
   reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Egypt Standard Time\Dynamic DST" /v LastEntry 

2. Verify whether  LastEntry is 0x7e7 (2023). If LastEntry is missing or different, please do not proceed. Wait for the May 2026 Windows security update or contact CSS.

Sample Output:

3. Optional Step: Create a backup before overwriting the settings with the fix. 

• • Run the following command to create backup:  reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Egypt Standard Time\Dynamic DST" "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\EgyptDST_backup.reg" /y

Apply Fix:

1. Apply the fix through the following command. 

2. reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Egypt Standard Time\Dynamic DST" /v 2023 /t REG_BINARY /d 88FFFFFF00000000C4FFFFFF00000A000400050017003B003B00E70300000400050005000000000000000000 

3. Then type Y when prompted to overwrite. 

Output:

Verify the Fix:

• Check Date and time settings to confirm that the temporary fix is applied. Select the Windows logo key, type "Date and time", and select Date and time settings. The notice should now say that DST begins on April 24, 2026.

• On May 1, 2026, all in-support systems will show the correct Egypt DST time automatically. Even if you apply the temporary workaround, no action is needed after this date.  

For additional information, please review our official policy page and How Windows manages time zone changes.