-Caveat Lector- Windows' "Short Date Format" Scare Fred Langa Join in the Discussion <Picture> Related articles: <Picture> Y2K Watch <Picture> Tick, Tick, Tick....Are You Ready for 2000 <Picture> I've gotten maybe 50 e-mails 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 roll over 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 e-mail is that it fails to distinguish between date calculations and date displays. 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 of whether or not the date is displayed in two- or four-digit format. What's more, with a compliant PC and the Y2K patches, even if you still allow two-digit date displays, you'll be fine. The year "00" will be correctly interpreted as 2000, "01" will correctly mean 2001 and so on. In fact, with the Y2K patches applied, Windows will interpret any two-digit dates this way: 00 to 29: Windows will infer a "20" before the digits; "15" will mean 2015, for example. 30 to 99: Windows will infer a "19" before the digits; "85" will mean 1985, for example. In most cases, that's exactly the way you want the dates to be interpreted. (If you need to enter two-digit dates beyond 2029, the Windows date-format picker lets you define you own outer two-digit date limit.) Now let's look at the flip side: If you don't have a Y2K-compliant PC, or of 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 to ensure that the date is correct in the first place. In fact, simply 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-digit 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: Start by getting correct Y2K patches for whatever version of Windows you use by going here: http://www.microsoft.com/y2k. If you wish, go ahead and set your PC's date display to four digits. It does no harm. But don't stop there: In about 5 minutes, and for free, you can check each of the various date-related subsystems in your PC and thus know, for sure and for real--regardless of what the chain e-mail letters are telling you--whether or not your PC or OS has a Y2K problem. And if there is a problem, chances are you can fix it easily and at low cost. It's all detailed here: http://www.winmag.com/library/1999/0101/fea0061.htm DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
