Hopefully your computer passed all it's Y2K hardware tests and
is now keeping the correct date for you in this new year of 2000!
However, you may not be aware of the important Y2K SOFTWARE updates for
the Windows 95 (and 98) Operating Systems as well! You can d/l one of the
free install programs from Microsoft's website (see below for the links).
If you are running Windows NT, you should already know that Microsoft
has made a number of "Service Packs" to upgrade that system. Service
Pack five (SP-5) should be installed to bring NT 4.0 into y2k compliance.
For Windows 98, see these links at the bottom of this page.
[ NOTE: There was an earlier y2k update for Win 95 which made a change to
COMMAND.COM and possibly other things, BUT there is a much more recent
one that is described here! (The old one came out in 1998, but these
new files, shown below, are dated from February and March of 1999.) ]
You should first read all of this document: Y2Kw95.TXT -- which comes
directly from the Microsoft update package itself. It explains in detail
all of the new changes and why they should be made.
Once you understand what will be done, you can download the Windows 95
update from this location:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/choose.asp.
The file you will DOWNLOAD is called " w95y2k.exe " and shows as
2,227kb on the screen in Explorer. The actual size is 2,279,712 bytes.
I would recommend logging OFF of the Internet before executing this
program. IF it offers you A CHOICE TO UPDATE the Microsoft Internet
Explorer to MSIE 4.0 SP-2, I would decline making that update until after
I'd taken care of the OS files first. (You can always go back online and
spend who knows how long to d/l that multi-megabyte change for MSIE4 !)
For those of you who already have MSIE5 or a Netscape browser, you
shouldn't be asked this question... but I don't know that for sure!
Proceed with all of the other changes, following the directions as
they are given to you.
When the update is finished, you may see any of the following newly
dated files in these directories for Windows 95:
[ Note: the size of COMMAND.COM will be different for the older 950
and 950a versions. The one shown below is for OSR2 (Win95 "B"). ]
C:\
===
COMMAND COM 93,974 02-19-99 10:55a COMMAND.COM
C:\WINDOWS
==========
DIALER EXE 68,992 02-19-99 10:55a DIALER.EXE
REGTLIB EXE 40,960 03-08-99 12:02a REGTLIB.EXE
WINFILE EXE 155,456 02-19-99 10:55a WINFILE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
==================
COMMAND COM 93,974 02-19-99 10:55a COMMAND.COM
XCOPY EXE 3,878 02-19-99 10:55a XCOPY.EXE
XCOPY32 EXE 41,472 02-19-99 10:55a XCOPY32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
=================
ASYCFILT DLL 147,728 03-08-99 12:02p ASYCFILT.DLL
CFGMGR32 DLL 22,528 02-19-99 10:55a CFGMGR32.DLL
COMCTL32 DLL 450,832 02-19-99 10:55a COMCTL32.DLL
MFC40 DLL 933,888 02-19-99 10:55a MFC40.DLL
MSVCRT40 DLL 326,656 02-19-99 10:55a MSVCRT40.DLL
OLEPRO32 DLL 164,112 03-08-99 12:02p OLEPRO32.DLL
OLEAUT32 DLL 598,288 03-08-99 12:02p OLEAUT32.DLL
SETUPAPI DLL 342,288 02-19-99 10:55a SETUPAPI.DLL
STDOLE2 TLB 17,920 03-08-99 12:02p STDOLE2.TLB
TIMEDATE CPL 48,640 02-19-99 10:55a TIMEDATE.CPL
VDHCP 386 28,053 02-19-99 10:55a VDHCP.386
W95INF16 DLL 2,272 03-08-99 12:02p W95INF16.DLL
W95INF32 DLL 4,608 03-08-99 12:02p W95INF32.DLL
ADVPACK DLL 81,408 03-12-99 1:24p ADVPACK.DLL
*SHELL32 DLL 817,664 02-19-99 10:55a SHELL32.DLL *
___________________
* Note: SHELL32.DLL will only be replaced in the older 950
and 950a versions; not in the OSR2 versions of Win 95.
After installing most of the files listed
above, the update program will add the following keys to your Registry
(for Win95's OSR2 version they should appear exaclty like these):
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\
Updates]
"Updates"="Year 2000 Update for Windows 95"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\
{6c5f5810-c55e-11d2-9213-006008b3ae99}]
@="Windows 95 Year 2000 Update"
"IsInstalled"=dword:00000001
"Locale"="EN"
"Version"="4.00.0.2000"
Sorry, you're kinda on your own since I don't run Win 98... I'm not
sure if this applies to the new SE (Second Edition) version either...
Be y2k-safe and check it out anyway!
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/y2k/
There's even a SECOND Windows 98 update (y2k2) already at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/y2k2/
Sincerely, The Starman.