for instructions.Year 2000 Information page for PC (UMSL tower, Dell, etc.) computer users
| Hardware | Operating Systems | Applications |
There are several free utilities available on the internet for checking the Y2K compliance of PC hardware. In our opinion the best of these testers is NSTL's YMARK2000: Year 2000 System Compliance Test. YMARK2000 is recommended by Intel, Dell, Compaq, and Gateway.
Using the YMARK2000 utility and some other utilities Campus Computing tested the computers which we have dispersed through the Desktop System Program of which there are basically two types. The older type are the tall beige metal "tower" systems. Since 1995 we started distributing the Dell OptiPlex line of computers and are still doing so.
Every Dell OptiPlex computer we have tested at the hardware level for Year 2000 compliance has passed without issue.
The beige metal "tower" systems do "fail" but in a very minor way. These computers will function fine in the next century, the only issue is that they will not automatically change from 1999 to 2000. However, if the system logs into UMSL-SERVER1 the system settings will be automatically changed to the current time and date, so for these systems no user intervention is required. For systems that don't login to UMSL-SERVER1, the date must be manually set to the Year 2000. To manually change the date in Windows 95 or Windows 98, follow these instructions:
1. Double Click the time display at the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
2. Set the date and year.
3. Click the OK button.
If the computer you have was not obtained through the Desktop System Program or if you
would just like to know with certainty the Y2K compliance of your hardware you can test it
yourself with the YMARK2000 utility. Click for instructions.
Another suggestion we have for persons without Desktop System Program computers is to
check the website of your PC hardware manufacturer. Click for a list of some of the major PC suppliers.
| Windows 3.x | Compliant with minor issues. For more information click here. |
| Windows 95
(All versions) NOTICE: A new Windows 95 Y2K patch has been released by Microsoft. April 30, 1999 we replaced the original Windows 95 Y2K patch with the new verson. If you installed the patch before Friday April 30, 1999, please repeat the procedure to update your system with the new patch. |
Compliant with the Year 2000 fix. To
install this fix: 1. Click on the Start button at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. 2. Click on Run. 3. Type "m:\y2k\win95y2k" in the Run window without the quotation marks. 4. Click Yes on the License Agreement. 5. Close all applications and Click OK. This will reboot your computer. If you have Norton Antivirus installed, a screen may appear when you reboot telling you that a change has been made. This screen will give you 4 choices: Repair, Inoculate, Continue, and Stop. Choose Inoculate. (If you use Windows 95 from home, click here to download the Year 2000 Update.) |
| There has been a
"hoax" e-mail message circulating around the internet warning of catastrophic
Y2K failure if the "Regional Settings" control panel is not set to display short
format dates with 4 digits for the year. This is a hoax and is not actually needed
for Y2K compliance as the setting only pertains to how dates are displayed not to how the
dates are stored by the computer. The dates are stored internally by the computer
with 4 digit years regardless of wether or not they are set to be displayed in two digit
year format. However, in the interest of removing all ambiguity from dates
Microsoft does recommend that you set dates to be displayed in 4 digits. Click here for instructions on how to set dates to always be displayed with 4 digit years. If you would like to read more in depth information about this at Microsoft's web site click here. |
|
| Windows 98 NOTICE: A second Windows 98 Y2K patch has been released by Microsoft. The second Windows 98 patch does not fix items fixed by the first Windows 98 patch. Both the first and second patches need to be installed for full Y2K compliance. |
Compliant with both Year 2000 patches
installed. To install the first patch: 1. Click on the Start button at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. 2. Click on Run. 3. Type "m:\y2k\win98y2k" in the Run window without the quotation marks. 4. Click OK and follow the instructions. 5. At the end of the installation, follow the instructions by restarting your computer. NOTE: If you have Norton Antivirus installed, a screen may appear when you reboot telling you that a change has been made. This screen will give you 4 choices: Repair, Inoculate, Continue, and Stop. Choose Inoculate. (If you use Windows 98 at home, click here to download the first Year 2000 Update.) |
| To install the second patch: 1. Click on the Start button at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. 2. Click on Run. 3. Type "m:\y2k\win98y2k2" in the Run window without the quotation marks. 4. Click OK and follow the instructions. 5. At the end of the installation, follow the instructions by restarting your computer. NOTE: If you have Norton Antivirus installed, a screen may appear when you reboot telling you that a change has been made. This screen will give you 4 choices: Repair, Inoculate, Continue, and Stop. Choose Inoculate. (If you use Windows 98 at home, click here to download the second Year 2000 Update.) |
|
| There has been a
"hoax" e-mail message circulating around the internet warning of catastrophic
Y2K failure if the "Regional Settings" control panel is not set to display short
format dates with 4 digits for the year. This is a hoax and is not actually needed
for Y2K compliance as the setting only pertains to how dates are displayed not to how the
dates are stored by the computer. The dates are stored internally by the computer
with 4 digit years regardless of wether or not they are set to be displayed in two digit
year format. However, in the interest of removing all ambiguity from dates
Microsoft does recommend that you set dates to be displayed in 4 digits. Click here for instructions on how to set dates to always be displayed with 4 digit years. If you would like to read more in depth information about this at Microsoft's web site click here. |
|
| Windows NT 4.0 Workstation | Compliant with either Service Pack 4 and post-SP4 Y2K update or Service Pack 5. Click on the respective link for the update and installation instructions. |
| There has been a
"hoax" e-mail message circulating around the internet warning of catastrophic
Y2K failure if the "Regional Settings" control panel is not set to display short
format dates with 4 digits for the year. This is a hoax and is not actually needed
for Y2K compliance as the setting only pertains to how dates are displayed not to how the
dates are stored by the computer. The dates are stored internally by the computer
with 4 digit years regardless of wether or not they are set to be displayed in two digit
year format. However, in the interest of removing all ambiguity from dates
Microsoft does recommend that you set dates to be displayed in 4 digits. Click here for instructions on how to set dates to always be displayed with 4 digit years. If you would like to read more in depth information about this at Microsoft's web site click here. |
| Acrobat Reader 3.0 and higher | Compliant |
| Dreamweaver 1.0 and higher | Compliant |
| Eudora (all versions) | Compliant |
| Infomaker 5.0 | Compliant when updated to version 5.0.04. To check which version of InfoMaker you are using click on the Help menu in Infomaker and then select About Infomaker. If the version # is less than 5.0.04 you should update it by printing out and then following the instructions available here. |
| Lotus 1-2-3 v5 | Enter dates using all 4 digits for the year. |
| Microsoft Office 97 | Compliant with Service Release(SR)-2. To determine
if you have SR-2 installed: 1. Open Microsoft Word. 2. Once Word has started, Click Help on the menu bar. 3. Click on About Microsoft Word at the bottom of the Help menu. 4. Microsoft® Word 97 will be on the first line in the window. If Service Release 2 is already installed, SR-2 will be beside the 97 on that line in which case your Microsoft Office 97 is already Y2K compliant and you don't need to do anything . If you have no Service Release installed or Service Release 1 is installed you will see either nothing or SR-1 respectively beside the 97 on that line. Please click here for instructions on how to update your Microsoft Office 97 to Service Release 2. |
| Microsoft Outlook 97 | Compliant with Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 2. |
| Microsoft Outlook 98 | Compliant |
| Netscape 2.02 and higher | Compliant |
| Norton Anti-Virus 4.0 and higher | Compliant |
| NetWare/intraNetWare Client v2.20 and higher for Win95/98 (Client 32) |
Compliant |
| WinZip 6.2 and higher | Compliant |
| WordPerfect 6.1 | Enter dates using all 4 digits for the year. |
| WS_FTP95 | Compliant |
| All other applications | Check with manufacturer. |
Back to Y2K Home Page.
This page created and maintained by Tom Schaefer tom@umsl.edu and Jason Loewen jason@umsl.edu.
Last updated 12/21/1999.