Windows NT Will Correctly Handle the Year 2000

 Last reviewed: February 2, 1998
Article ID: Q149582
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SUMMARY

Windows NT will not have a problem handling the switch to the year 2000.

MORE INFORMATION

By virtue of its initial design, the Windows NT platform and all services that ship with Windows NT such as CSNW or GSNW will not have the same sort of trouble experienced by older mainframe applications. When using the NTFS file system, which uses a 64-bit time-stamp, the Windows NT platform is "aware" of many centuries into the future. The time-stamp on FAT file systems is good until 2108. IS organizations that implemented IBM (and other) mainframe-based applications are concerned as many of these older applications were not written to be year-2000 aware. For a year-stamp, they only enter the last two digits of the year, for example, 1977 would be entered as 77. This means that if a "00" is entered, there is no way to tell which century it is. Applications designed in Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and so on, should not have this type of trouble as they all include a date field that goes beyond just two digits.

Additional query words: Y2K
Keywords : nthowto kbnetwork
Version : WinNT:3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform : WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: February 2, 1998
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