Editor's Note - this page attempts to give you direct addresses to areas of interest conercning Windows 95, but given the volatility of direct page addresses in the Microsoft site, additional information will be posted at the top of this page in the future, and the old links left "as is." Or, go to the Microsoft home page and do a key word search on the text below.
Microsoft Corporation has released Y2K compliance information on their web site. This is an excellent site for obtaining current information on Microsoft products and obtaining patches or "work-arounds" for Microsoft software. However, you should ensure a patch is absolutely necessary and fully tested by your organization in a non-production environment before utilizing ANY Y2K software patches!
Windows 95 comes in several versions; to check on the version that you have - Run the program QFECHECK.EXE for a display of the upgrade status of the Windows system files. (Which it now turns out, is not available on all versions of the operating system. Drop into DOS mode, go to the \SYSTEM\COMMAND\ directory and issue a DIR /1 instruction and check the file dates against the file dates below -)
| Release Version | Version Number | File dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 95 Retail | 4.00.950 | 07/11/95 | (Retail) |
| OEM Service Release 1 | 4.00.950 | 12/31/95 | (OSR1) |
| Service Pack 1 | 4.00.950A | 12/31/95 | (OSR2; No USB) |
| OEM Service Release 2 | 4.00.111B | 08/24/96 | (OSR2.1; With USB) |
To set the year display to show the full 4-digit year -
An excellent discussion of the interactions between various Windows operating systems and the BIOS is at Micro Firmware's article on "The Y2K Date Rollover Problem on PC Systems." by Terry Slade. Some of that article's comments are worth repeating here -
"... If the system is running under WIN3.1x over the century change, the date should roll over properly, just it would under DOS, but after rebooting the system it would show a date of 01-04-1980.
"Windows 95 also does not correct for the date rollover problem, although it may appear to if testing is not done carefully.
"Windows 98 does appear to correct for the date rollover problem, however this correction is thwarted if the system is booted from a DOS diskette on the first boot after the century change. The date would then be 01/04/80 and when Windows 98 is restarted it will keep this date until manually changed."
The following is an excerpt from a special edition of the Office Enterprise Insider newsletter -
"Because we want to ensure that customers feel comfortable with the privacy of their Office 97 documents, Microsoft has decided to help users remove the unique identifier number from documents. As of next week, the following free patches will be available for you to download* from the Office Update Web site: