Microsoft Patches Win 98 Y2K Bug

Windows 98 users can download the free Windows Update year-2000 patch that Microsoft says will take care of infrequent but possible glitches in the operating system.

Microsoft discovered the 2000 bug during ongoing tests conducted after the operating system was released. The company plans to notify registered Windows 98 customers by e-mail.

Under certain circumstances, programs can display the wrong date after December 31, 1999, according to Microsoft. The "minor year 200 issues" pose no risk of data loss or PC damage, and users would be unlikely to notice the glitch during normal use of their computer, Microsoft said in a statement.

Users can download the patch from the Microsoft Web site. The patch is also available on CD-ROM by calling 800/363-2896.

Following is a list of year-2000 problem areas Microsoft has discovered in Windows 98.

• Date rollover: If a system is booting at the precise fraction of a second when the date rolls, the system clock may display an inaccurate time or date. This would be extremely rare, because the exact time frame varies among machines and lasts typically less than one second.
  
  
• Date/Time: If a user opens the Date/Time applet in the control panel and sets the date to February 29 of a leap year, and then uses the up and down buttons to change years, February 29 might be displayed for other years. This is simply a display problem, however--the user cannot apply this incorrect date.
  
  
• Dialer.Exe Log: When a user makes a phone call using the Phone Dialer applet, the log file displays the year of the call incorrectly.
  
  
• DOS XCOPY: When XCOPY is run in real mode with the optional parameter /D:date, it does not accept years entered as two digits, except for the years 80 through 99. The system displays the message "Invalid date." When XCOPY is run from within Windows, the program accepts two-digit dates but recognizes them as twentieth-century dates only (02/05/01 is read as 02/05/1901)
  
  
• . Java Virtual Machine: Some year-2000 problems occur in the Sun Microsystems Java Development Kit (versions 1.1.1 to 1.1.5), involving date functions that truncate the year to two digits
  
  
• . Microsoft Wallet: When entering credit-card information in Microsoft Wallet 2.0 or earlier versions, users must enter the month, day, and year for expiration dates beyond 2000 or data may be parsed incorrectly.
  
  
• Regional Settings Date/Time Picker: If Regional Settings in the Control Panel is set to use two-digit years, then the Date/Time Picker function may not return the proper date. Users should set Regional Settings to four-digit dates or download the Windows 98 year-2000 Update.