Panic in the Year Zero Zero    

Windows 3.1x File Manager

How badly broken is MS Windows?

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A concerned Windows user inquired in news:comp.software.year-2000 about the following apparant contradiction:

• The Microsoft website reports the File System used by Windows 3.1x correctly handles dates up to 2108.
• MS Knowledge base article Q85557 says the Windows 3.1x File Manager will incorrectly report the date of a file created after 1/1/2000

The File System is a low level part of DOS. In the OSI system model, the File System is at the Session and Transport layers. Anything at the higher layers (Application and Presentation) will fail if the File System fails. The DOS File System should work until 2108, but some DOS applications will fail earlier.

The Windows 3.1 File Manager is at the Application layer. Nothing is built on top of it; if it falls it falls alone. File Manager has a display problem. If a file has a date in the year 2000, File Manager will report the year as 19:0.

MS has put fixed versions of File Manager on their web site. Unfortunately, Microsoft's site is very slow. As The Day approaches, these files will be more and more available on all your favorite download sites. For maximum safety download the file from two different sites and compare the files before installation. I created some files with future dates -- I saw incorrect dates in the old File Manager and correct dates in the new one. I have been running the revised Win3.1 File Manager since 1998-02-01 without incident.

W95FILUP.EXE -- Windows 95 File Manager - (Swedish Mirror)

W31FILUP.EXE -- Windows 3.1 File Manager - (Swedish Mirror)

WFWFILUP.EXE -- Windows For Workgroups File Manager - (Swedish Mirror).

If anyone knows other ftp sites where these files are available, let me know, I'll add more alternate links.

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