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Microsoft is currently working
on an add-on for Windows 98. Its purpose is to fix Y2K problems
that Microsoft is still finding in Win 98. Though on a better
note, they said that a plethora of these problems would not
happen in daily computer use. Most of the bugs were found in
Microsoft's new release of IE 5.0. Some problems occur in international
versions of Visual Basic, Dos XCOPY, and obviously Internet
Explorer.
Within the next week Microsoft
hopes to release the fix on the Windows Update website. The
add-on, Microsoft Windows 98 Special Edition, is due later this
year. There are three main things that Special Edition will
fix. The OLE Automation Library routines for interpreting two-digit
years cuts off years at 2029, so two-digit years with "30" will
be interpreted as 1930 instead of 2030, regardless of the date
settings. Another program that will conflict with the dates
in the year 2000 is DOS XCOPY, because it uses recognizes dates
in the international form instead of standard form. It will
not recognize 00 as 2000. International versions of Windows
98 that use a non-Gregorian calendar will give an error in certain
Visual Basic applications that use dates. This does not affect
English versions of Windows 98.
At Microsoft's website, you can
check to see if your software will make it in Y2K era. You can
also check your C++ code and learn how to change it for the
year 2000. Another resource to for Y2K is the Windows Update
homepage. The sweatshop workers; err... I mean skilled professionals
will be updating the downloads constently for the latest changes.
Keep your eyes pealed for that.
Hopefully, Microsoft
will release Special Editon 98 for August or September because
with the software competition out there today, there has got
to be someone else programming a fix for Y2K. Another scare
is that if they don't get the fix some really concerned people
may just switch away from Windows and go to Linux or another
OS. They are just the extremes, I know I will be waiting for
MS Special Editon to come out.
by Rich Golaszewski
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