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  Last updated 15 Dec. 1999

Free Y2K Help for home & small business.

A Road Map to Microsoft Software Y2K Compliance
Most small business folks like myself find themselves using Micro$oft operating systems and software products. Many of which are Y2K "Compliant (prerequisite required)". That is Bill Gates double speak for 'well it almost is, but first you need to run the bug fix program'. Kinda reminds me of a particular question about the meaning of the word 'is'. Oh well, 'nuff said, Mr. Gates and his fine corporation have been kind enough to provide the computing public with a program that you can use to test all of the Micro$oft software on your computer and verify your state of Y2K readiness. Or if you are reading this after 01/01/00, why it is that your computer doesn't know that tomorrow starts at 12:00 Midnight and not 1:00 AM. Microsoft has stated that they intend to support both Windows 95 and Office 97 until January 1, 2001 My hope is that they will have the bug fixed version of Windows 2000 out by then and I can skip Windows 98 altogether unless I need a USB port for some reason or another.

Anyway, The Microsoft Y2K Web Site, is a very busy place right now,
and is located at http://www.microsoft.com/y2k/ or http://www.microsoft.com/year2000/
They tend to always change the links around which is why I have included so many links here following. You are looking for a file called y2k_en.exe for the english version. You can scroll down the first page and look for the Microsoft Year 2000 Resource Center for Home and Small Business Computers and pick the right country or skip down this page here a bit further to the links in the next section if you dare.

For the USA
At  http://computingcentral.msn.com/guide/year2000/msy2k/introducing/y2khome.asp
you can click on the "Microsoft Product Analyzer" and it should take you to
http://computingcentral.msn.com/guide/year2000/msy2k/learningmore/analyzer.asp which tells you about it  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/pca/pca.htm is where you can download it (y2k_en.exe) About three quarters of the way down this page there is a drop down box asking you to "Select Language" click on the language that you want and click on the "Download Intel Version" button if you are using an Intel, AMD or Cyrix processor in your computer with Windows 95 or 98. If you are using Windows NT get the "Administrators Version". If you are using an Alpha processor you should already know what to do. Download it, put it into a directory that you can find again, I use C:\download\microsoft myself for a directory name. Run y2k_en.exe and it will create a directory called C:\Y2KScan Run the Y2kscan.exe program, go ahead and let it check for and download the latest version of y2kdbEN.txt if needed. It will create a web page report by default on your computer called C:/Y2KSCAN/y2krep.htm

Once you run the Y2kscan.exe analyzer program the web page that it saves on your computer will have links to the following and others.

For Windows 95
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/default.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wurecommended/s_wufeatured/win95y2k/default.asp
 You are looking for win95y2k.exe Once you run it, if your computer locks up and will not quit when you are trying to restart that may indicate that something else needs to be updated first. Go ahead and hit the reset button and let it run scandisk on the way back in. Run the Y2kscan.exe program again to see if your version of Windows 95 is now "Compliant" instead of still "Compliant (prerequisite required)" after you tried to update. If so, you lucked out. If not, you can try the following here that took me a couple of weeks to figure out.

Uninstall MS Internet Explorer 5. Install MS Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 2. You know the version that you did not want to install beacuse it takes over your desktop. You can tell it not to, but it eats all of your Netscape shortcuts anyway and makes them all into MSIE shortcuts. Update the MS Outlook email client with the year 2000 bug fix. It doesn't matter if you don't use Outlook, you have to update it to make the OS appear to work correctly. That should do it. Run the Y2kscan.exe program again to see if your version of Windows 95 is now "Compliant" instead of still "Compliant (prerequisite required)". Then go ahead and reinstall MS Internet Explorer 5 so that Quicken 2000 will work correctly again. If you are using a proxy server be sure to diable the automatic detect proxy "feature". Then go back and download and reinstall all of the security hole bug fixes again. Wheeee...
 
 

For Windows 98
Run the "Update Windows 98" built in wizard. It sorta looks like they did fix some six thousand bugs in Windows 95 Be sure that you are either running the second edition of Windows 98 or update yourself to at least that far. This is the bug fix for the bug fix that created the other bugs when you ran it to fix the first bugs. Be sure to run the Y2kscan.exe program again to see if your version of Windows 98 is now "Compliant" instead of something else.

For Windows NT v. 4.0 Server and Workstation

For Office 97
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

For Microsoft Internet Explorer
I personally sorta like Internet Explorer version 5. This version has been hacked and cracked many times just like the other versions so I would strongly advise that you download all of the security updates. Three of these will require that you restart your computer, what fun. I also refuse to utilize the Micro$oft (Lookout for your data integrity) Outlook email client. I consider it to be way too much of a security risk for me or my networking clients. I use both Netscape Communicator and Pegasus but most any other email client program is just fine like Eudora or DTS mail or a zillion others.
 

Two digit dates vs four digit dates.
It is a good idea to set your computer to use four digit dates by default to avoid confusion between 1900 and 2000 or 1943 or 2043 for that matter. I already did that one last spring on all of the computers I am responsible for. There is a program that will do this automaticly located at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/DateConversion/default.asp

The Y2K Urban Legend Debunked

All      Most of this stuff on one CD
In the US, to obtain the Year 2000 Resource Center CD from Microsoft that will include the Windows 95 year 2000 software update, please click here or call 1-888-MSFT-Y2K.
 

When considering any Micro$oft software I personally find the following statement helps me to keep things in perspective.

"Just Remember, The Operating System Is The Virus"

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp?
 www.pc100.com is from the fine feathered folks at  the Memory Store  A Microsoft Disgusted Solution Provider.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners &cetera. I am sorry to have to dis Micro$oft so much, but how many misteaks can one make before it becomes obvious that there is a pattern of, at the very least, irresponsible corporate behavior here. Give me a break, all I want is cost effective, relatively bug free and reliable computing. Is that way too much to ask? Should not a corporation build itself on good products that make customers happy instead of doing proprietary incompatible things meant to break competitors products? Don't blame me if you crash your computer, I am only trying to help. Ah well, stupid computers, when they work right they are a great thing. Sosueme, if I had deep pockets I wouldn't be giving it away for free here.