In 2005, Year 2000 updates are not over yet!

What relief now that January 1^st, 2000 is behind us.  There wasn't as much of a computer problem as the media had lead many to believe.  Some jumped on the bandwagon and pretended they weren't responsible for any panic.  They even made an effort to show that there is no longer any problem.  Unfortunately, that is not entirely true.

A lot of people think that the y2k issues ended on January 1st, 2000.  The y2k issues start with the year 2000.  A lot of the problems involve dates 30 years down the road from 2000!

Due to the concerns of the year 2000 with computer software, Microsoft reviewed all of their products for date issues.  Some of the date issues found relate to dates that immediately follow the January 1, 2000 date.   Some programs had problems on January 1, 2001 and 2002 and still others had problems on January 1, 2003 due to hard-coding a fix to handle the year 2000.  2004 poses another problem since it again is a leap year, although it was a lesser problem since most pre-2000 leap year caluclations worked the same; the problems not fixed were usually because the leap year code hid other problems that didn't get fixed for 2000.  Part of the problem was that the leap year functions did not interpret a two-digit year correctly as the 4 digit equivalent.

Several applications use 2 digits for the year.  In Windows, the two digit year cutoff is 2029.  Two digits years beginning with 30 will be interpreted as 1930 regardless of the setting in the Control Panel Regional Settings for Dates.  At first, it would appear that we don't have to worry for awhile about those date issues.  However, if you have applications such as loan applications or forecasting applications that deal with future dates and those applications use two digits for the year, those dates could be calculated incorrectly.  It depends on how the applications use the operating system to interpret dates.  It is best to ensure your applications and operating systems are up-to-date.

The range of date issues varies tremendously.  As a result, Microsoft publishes updates to all Microsoft products that could have any problems with any dates as part of their year 2000 initiative.  The updates apply to almost all software distributed before the year 2000.  For example, MS Office 97, Windows 95, Windows 98 (first edition), Windows NT (before service pack 6a), MS Works (prior to 4.0), all have y2k issues and should be updated.  This list is not conclusive but show the major applications and operating systems should be looked at.

Microsoft developed the y2k updates for the latest version of the software at the time, even though many users still had and still have earlier versions.  The task would be too enormous to implement for all previous versions still out in the field.  The date issue updates require the software to be updated to the level that Microsoft developed the y2k fixes for first.  The software must have already been installed prior to applying the date issue updates.  Fortunately, Microsoft was kind and did not make these updates a chargeable update.  Both of the updates can be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft website.  Additionally, a CD subscription service was made available as part of the TechNet services by Microsoft.  The CD version is much faster than waiting for a download to complete.  We have subscribed to the CD service and have all of the CDs on hand.  In addition to the date issues, these CDs have the required software updates that need to be installed prior.

If you do not wish to update your own software, or the job just seems too large, we can update your Microsoft products to have both the software updates, and the date issue updates (Y2k, Y2k+1, and beyond).

See also:

Update Index, Wireless Networking, Web Design, Photo Retouching, and Proofreading

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