Notice: Ramadan Exception for Morocco DST

As stated in the previous blog post, Microsoft has issued updates for Morocco introducing Daylight Saving Time in 2012 [KB2698707].

Daylight time will be paused during the holy month of Ramadan. Due to the yearly fluctuation of the start and end dates of Ramadan during this time of year, it is difficult to engineer updates for Windows in advance. For the sake of consistency and predictability, Windows will use July 20^th 2012 and August 19^th 2012 as the start and end dates for Ramadan respectively.

These are the same dates that have been published in the original KB article [KB2698707]. Note that this blog post does not mean that the dates have changed since the original plan – this is purely for awareness and notification of the dates that Windows will use as the Ramadan period in 2012.

Setting these hard dates allows for the DST interruption to occur during the time of Ramadan in Morocco in a reliable manner. With the time transitions being automatic, customers will be able to rely on their Windows computers turning DST off for Ramadan on July 20^th and adjusting back to DST time on August 19^th creating a very consistent and predictable experience.