DST and your Terminal Servers

[CraigMarcho]

First published on TECHNET on Mar 20, 2007
Here’s a scenario that we’ve seen recently that some customers neglect when it comes to the DST update: Terminal Server clients connecting to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server.

A very common Terminal Services deployment involves Microsoft Office 2003 installed on Terminal Servers with users connecting from either thin clients or Windows XP SP2 desktop machines.  In this scenario, patching the Terminal Server and making sure Exchange is up to date is only half the battle; you must also make sure that clients connecting to the Terminal Server are updated with the new DST information.

So what does this problem look like?  After logging on to the Terminal Server, the time shown in the system tray will be correct but when opening Outlook, appointments will show as being one hour behind the actual time.  This is due to either the client not having the DST patch installed or the user has modified the time settings on their client and unchecked the “Automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time” checkbox as shown in the image to the left.

This occurs because the time on the client PC and Terminal Server are synchronized when the user logs on.  If the client is not set to observe DST then the session will also be set that way, even though the Terminal Server has been patched with the DST update.

To determine what needs to be done to the client to make sure it is patched, you can visit the Microsoft DST Website listed below and make sure you select Microsoft Windows XP.  If you use thin clients select Microsoft Windows Embedded for Point of Service, Windows Mobile, or Windows CE from the list of operating systems.

Additional Resources:

• Daylight Saving Time Help & Support Center
• DST Hot Topics
• Preparing for DST Changes in 2007

- Don Geddes