Windows Mobile and time zones revisited

Anyone who uses Outlook and Windows Mobile is familiar with the time zone bugaboo.  Outlook knows when you add an appointment what the time zone is and the appointment time will be adjusted automatically if the creator of the meeting request was in a different time zone than the local machine’s.  This is not a problem as long as you are aware that will happen and is probably the best way to handle multiple time zones.  But when you are taking a trip into a different time zone you have to make sure that you select the proper zone at appointment creation time so that it will display in your calendar at the proper time at the destination.  To avoid this confusion I do what many Outlook users do and do not change my PCs time zone when I arrive at the new one.  This prevents Outlook from auto-adjusting times for all appointments that are created prior to adjusting the systems time zone and insures that all appointment times are consistent.

This gets more complicated when you also use a Windows Mobile phone device as I do.  While all the appointments are correct on the PC side the times all auto-adjust when you arrive at the new destination because Windows Mobile adjusts the time zone based on the phone network’s information.  RIght now I have many appointments on my schedule for this week at the CES that display the proper start time on the PC but are off two hours on the Windows Mobile device.  It gets really confusing when someone sends a meeting request here locally with the Vegas time zone because when I add it to Outlook it displays off two hours but correctly on the WM device.  This is not a bug, it’s the best way for time zones to be handled but you must be aware of how this works or you’ll be constantly arriving early or late.  The proper way to handle this is to change the PC time zone to match the local time but if you do that then all appointments entered without specifically designating the destination time zone will be off on both devices. 

Does anybody in this situation have tips on how to handle this better?

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