Y2K HOAX
About some misinformation....
An e-mail message being circulated re: Windows software and Y2K about
changing the short format date in Windows is a hoax. Read on to see what
one of the contributing writers/editors at Windows magazine (Fred Langa)
has to say about it and other Y2K issues.
Windows' "Short Date Format" Scare
I've gotten maybe 50 emails in the last week about a "new" Y2K
issue---maybe you got one too. The heart of the letter is something like this:
Every copy of Windows in the world has
default settings that will make it FAIL on Jan 1,
2000!!!! I'm not kidding!!!! Check for
yourself!!!! PASS THIS LETTER ON!!!!!
TEST:
Click on "START"
Click on "SETTING"
Click on "CONTROL PANEL"
Double click on "REGIONAL SETTINGS" icon
Click on the "DATE" tab at the top of the page.
Where it says, "Short Date Sample," look and see
if it shows a "two digit" year (yy). That is the
default setting for Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT
This date RIGHT HERE is the date that feeds
application software and WILL NOT rollover in the
year 2000. It will roll over to 00.
Click on the "SHORT DATE STYLE" pull down
menu and select the option That shows, mm/dd/yyyy.
(Be sure your selection has four Y's showing and
not two.)
Click on "APPLY" and then click on "OK" at
the bottom.
Alas, this note is mostly wrong--- in fact, Microsoft calls it an outright
hoax. The worst part of the email is that it fails to distinguish between
the way dates are calculated and the way they're displayed. The "date
format picker" above affects only how Windows displays dates and interprets
the way you type in dates. It tells you nothing about the underlying
software calculations or about your PC's date-keeping hardware.
If your PC hardware is Y2K compliant and if you're running a newer version
of Windows and/or have applied the Y2K patches available (for free) from
the Microsoft site, Windows will calculate Y2K dates correctly regardless
whether or not the date is displayed in two- or four-digit format.
On the other hand, if you don't have a Y2K-compliant PC, or if you haven't
applied the Y2K patches, then changing the date-display format is just
rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: Changing the format does
nothing except to give you a false sense of security.
In fact, using four-digit dates won't do you any good at all if the rest of
your version of Windows, or the rest of your software, or your PC itself
has any of about five completely separate Y2K issues. This "set a
four-digits date format and you'll be fine" approach is way too simplistic.
It's totally misleading. It's wrong.
Fortunately, the real Y2K tests, and the real fixes, are ridiculously easy:
To fully address this issue (which has alarmed many of you; and caused
others to have false sense of Y2K security) I've made this the topic of my
Dialog Box column on the WinMag site this week.
There, in more detail than I could fit in this newsletter, I'll give you
the full scoop on the "Date Format" scare, and why it can be perfectly fine
to continue using two-digit dates. I'll show you where to get free fixes
and patches for any Y2K problems your copy of Windows may have, and I'll
show you a simple, free, five-minute do-it-yourself test anyone can do to
ensure that your PC is fully Y2K-safe at every level.
Y2K scares---and bogus emails--- abound. But don't be taken in: Come get
the facts, starting midday (EDT; GMT-4) Monday Aug 9, 1999 via the front
page at http://www.winmag.com .
