Read Me First
In an ongoing effort toward Year 2000 compliance, Microsoft has identified minor Year 2000 issues within Windows^® 98. This update corrects several minor issues associated with generating dates on your computer on or after January 1, 2000. They include leap year calculations in particular circumstances, handling of some date/time settings, and correct logging of on-line calling.

This software update is part of the Windows 98 Customer Service Pack. The following updates are included in the Windows 98 Customer Service Pack:

• Windows 98 System Update
• Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2*
• Windows 98 Year 2000 Update*
• Windows 98 Year 2000 Update 2*
• Outlook® Express Year 2000 Update*

For best performance and reliability of your Windows PC, Microsoft recommends that you download all the components of the Service Pack from the Windows Update Product Catalog if you have not done so already.

You can also get this update and the other Windows 98 Customer Service Pack components, along with Internet Explorer 5 and other new features, by ordering the Windows 98 Second Edition Updates CD for existing Windows 98 users. To order, please click here.

For more information on Windows 98 Second Edition, click here.

The following Year 2000 issues are addressed in this update:

Regional Settings Date/Time - If Regional Settings in Control Panel are set to use two-digit years, the date/time function may not return the proper date because only two digits at a time can be accepted.

Java Virtual Machine - Some Year 2000 issues have been reported in connection with Java virtual machines based on the Sun Microsystems Java Development Kit (versions 1.1.1-1.1.5). For example, if your Web site uses Java and makes use of the java.txt.SimpleDateFormat class library and you enter four digits for the year, the date functions may use only the first two digits.

Dialer.Exe Log - If you make a phone call using the phone dialer, the log file that is created displays the year portion of the call date incorrectly.

Date/Time control - If you open Date/Time in Control Panel and set the date to February 29 of a leap year and then use the up/down buttons to change years, February 29 might be displayed even for non-leap years.

WordPad custom properties - If you select Properties/Custom on a Wordpad or Word document, the custom date settings will not accept the Year 2000 as a valid entry when entered as a two-digit year, or "00." Additionally, since all two digit dates are assumed to be in the 20th century, if the time zone is set to Far East, the date properties will lose a day when you enter the year as 2000.

Date Rollover - If your system boots up at the precise fraction of a second when the date rolls at midnight, the system clock may display an inaccurate time/date. This is an extremely rare occurrence.

Lagging IP Lease dates - If you log on to a LAN after March 1, 2000 and run Winipcfg from the Run command or Ipconfig from the DOS VM, the DHCP client reports the IP lease date as having been obtained on the previous day.

Programming to data access components - If you are a programmer and code to ADO or OLE DB, use data access components such as adDate, adDBDate, Dbtype_Filetime, chose to use an international date format with periods as separators, and specify a year less than 60, your date may be translated as a time.

Microsoft Foundation Class Library - After the Year 2000, programs that use the COleDateTime function may improperly parse a date.

DOS Xcopy - When using xcopy in real mode with the optional parameter /D:date, xcopy does not accept years entered as two digits, except for the years 80 through 99. The message "Invalid date" is displayed. When using xcopy in protected mode (from within Windows) two-digit dates are accepted but are recognized as being within the 20th century (02/05/01 is seen as 02/05/1901).

Before You Install the Windows 98 Year 2000 Update

Because the Windows 98 Year 2000 Update updates your system files it is recommended that you disable any anti-virus software that is running. If you chose not to disable this software please accept the changes made to the IO.sys file when prompted by the anti-virus software during installation of the update or after restarting your machine.

1. Click the Download button at the top or bottom of the page.
2. Follow the instructions on your screen.

After the Installation the Windows 98 Year 2000 Update
Please make a new Emergency Startup Disk that will reflect the changes made.

1. Insert original startup disk in Drive A
2. Click on Start / Programs / MS-DOS Prompt
3. Type 'Sys a:' without the quotes (you will receive a message stating system transferred when process is complete).

1. Insert blank floppy into Drive A.
2. Click on Start / Programs / MS-DOS Prompt.
3. Type 'cd \windows\command' then Enter.
4. Type 'bootdisk' then Enter to create an updated startup disk.

How to use
You don't need to do anything after downloading.

Uninstall is not available for this component.

ALL COMMUNICATIONS OR CONVEYANCES OF INFORMATION TO YOU CONCERNING MICROSOFT AND THE YEAR 2000 REFLECTS INFORMATION THAT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL SUCH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED TO YOU PURSUANT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH AT MICROSOFT'S YEAR 2000 WEB SITE LOCATED AT http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/product/product.asp AND IS INTENDED TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER INFORMATION LOCATED AT THE Y2K WEBSITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MICROSOFT'S YEAR 2000 COMPLIANCE STATEMENT, THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CATEGORIES OF COMPLIANCE INTO WHICH MICROSOFT HAS CLASSIFIED ITS PRODUCTS IN ITS YEAR 2000 PRODUCT GUIDE, AND THE MICROSOFT YEAR 2000 TEST CRITERIA. MICROSOFT THEREFORE RECOMMENDS THAT YOU CHECK THE YEAR 2000 WEBSITE REGULARLY FOR ANY CHANGES TO ANY MICROSOFT YEAR 2000 STATEMENT. ALL SUCH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND AND PROVIDED AS A YEAR 2000 READINESS DISCLOSURE.