MICROSOFT has a NEW consumer Y2K site. Even includes message boards, chat lines, and a picture and some reassuring introductory comments from Bill Gates.
microsoft.com
They modified their compliance statements, added a disclaimer (assume) at the end ... and got rid of these two previous categories:
TESTING YET TO BE COMPLETED
Product test is not yet complete or has not been started but will be tested.
WILL NOT TEST
The product will not be tested for compliance.
Message 8672264
Guess those categories got some people nervous. Instead, they covered their butts with this statement:
"The products represented in this guide constitute an incomplete list of Microsoft products. Microsoft will continually update this guide with the most current Year 2000 test information."
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COMPLIANT
The product meets Microsoft's standard of compliance as indicated with the following symbols applied, as appropriate:
* The product is compliant. User action is recommended, which may include loading a software update or accessing shared technology.
# The product is compliant with an acceptable deviation from Microsoft's standard of compliance. An acceptable deviation does not affect the core functionality, data integrity, stability, or reliability of the product.
+ The product is compliant. Software updates are pending. Future maintenance actions will be recommended shortly.
[LOL - I love this last one!!!!! How in the h*ll do they get away with this stuff? If you use Microsoft's definition of "compliance", I guess the world is already 99.9% compliant.]
Note: Compliance ratings given for each product assume that all recommended actions have been taken.
[The way Microsoft's been handling this whole Y2K deal, is just too, too funny.]
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The Saga of Y2K and MICROSOFT
Bill Gates is gonna fix it
=======================================================
NOVEMBER 1998:
Windows 2000 is clearly aimed at the Fortune 500 market, not Main Street ... Microsoft's marketing machine is pretending that a new operating system is going to help Y2K efforts in late 1999, Microsoft is going to have one nasty public relations problem on its hands ... Microsoft is continuing to lead consumers to wrongly conclude that by upgrading their operating system to Windows 2000, they will be immune to Y2K problems. What about the millions of people who simply don't have the necessary hardware to run something the size of Windows 2000?
y2ktimebomb.com
JANUARY 1999:
Microsoft announces that all of their "core" products are Y2K compliant.
MARCH 1999:
Microsoft's Terminal Server Edition (TSE) is under fire yet again after the company admitted the product is still not Year 2000 compliant despite having already issued a Y2K patch.
Message 8285054
Windows 2000, Users Zilch: The Y2K Disaster Parading as Microsoft's Windows NT Marketing Plan
pbs.org
It is my understanding that there is a problem with the cookies file. "Without the proper patch, cookies that use a two-digit year value of 00 are considered to be expired." (source: PC Novice Guide to Y2K) Think that might mess up e-commerce just a bit?
Message 8331056
Microsoft has used different windowing strategies for their Access database and the Excel spreadsheet .... So a user of Microsoft's Y2K compliant Access database can send a transaction to Microsoft's Y2K compliant Excel spreadsheet and it will fail because Microsoft's Y2K fixes classify it in different centuries.
Message 8339656
Microsoft's year 2000 (Y2K) strategy manager, Matusow - however, acknowledged that Microsoft could not possibly give "patches" for all its products. Thus, it is currently identifying products that are "heavily used," though these may be old versions.
cnnfn.com
"Microsoft has recently reversed their recommendation ... and will not guarantee [that] Windows 95 will be Y2K-ready, nor will they develop a migration path from Windows 95 to Windows 2000," said EDS CIO Gary Rudin in a March 16 memo to EDS business-unit executives ... The big question is why Microsoft hasn't released the same information to the thousands of other companies that plan to stick with patched-up Windows 95 operating systems through the millennium rollover. Currently, about 125 million corporate desktops worldwide run on Windows 95...
computerworld.com
Two weeks later - LOL
APRIL 1999:
Microsoft, which released a new year 2000 testing tool is preparing an update for Windows 95 ... Windowing' update should fix date glitches ...
zdnet.com
COMMON Y2K FIX ONLY TEMPORARY: "WINDOWING"
The most common technique used to fix computers vulnerable to Year 2000 failures is only a short-term remedy, and even advocates of the method acknowledge it will require other expensive repairs or replacements within a generation ... The temporary fix, using a sophisticated twist of logic to fool computers, is highly controversial among insiders because it's intended to work for only a few decades -- typically 30 years ... The Clinton administration and industry analysts estimate the method is being used to patch 80% of computers in the worldwide repair... So why is the technique, called ''windowing,'' used at all?
usatoday.com
I finally finished that 'Microsoft and Y2K' white paper ...
1) Microsoft is not going to get all of its mainstream products up to 'Y2K compliance' ...
2) Some major corporate products, like NT 4.0 Server, are still in serious flux. There is a small possibility that they will not be ready at all, and a large possibility that they won't be ready in time for large companies to install them ...
Message 8863436
Gates: Y2K not so Bad
For most people the millennium bug should prove to be no more than a "minor inconvenience", according to Microsoft Corp. Chairman, Bill Gates... "The most important thing is that people in the area of information technology ... should remember that there's still time to solve the problem," Gates was quoted as saying... "But the time to start -- if you haven't already done so -- is now."
zdnet.com
[Gates said this in April. Here we are 2-months later, and Microsoft still doesn't have all of the patches for people to start fixing these problems.]
Microsoft has found still more Year 2000-related issues in Windows 98 and is currently working on a fix, which it expects to issue in the next few weeks.
winmag.com
MAY 1999:
60 MINUTES
"But that wasn't the only problem. The county soon learned from Microsoft, that the in-house computer network that handles e-mail and stores county records and was supposed to be Y2K compliant was not."
Message 9748340
JUNE 1999:
Microsoft Corp.'s Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold denied Monday a report that he was being forced out but said he will begin a one-year leave of absence from the software giant on July 1 ... Myhrvold, 39, said he will return to his current job in July 2000. During his leave, he will act as a consultant for Gates, tend to personal investments and spend time with his family, as well as joining a hunt for dinosaur fossils in eastern Montana this summer.
Message 9882308
Murphy also confirmed that Microsoft [MSFT] '98 was not entirely Y2K compatible, but said the problem was not widely known because "what they're (Microsoft) worried about is, when you tell people to do an upgrade like that - download the patch and upgrade it - you get a million tech support calls." Murphy said the problem wasn't fatal and Microsoft notification of this wouldn't really be widely known "until we get toward October-November.
Message 9975736
Cheryl
P.S. Where's that CD that Microsoft told us about in March?? Anyone get their CD yet? ... "Microsoft will soon distribute CD-ROM versions of Microsoft's Y2K product guide. It lists products that are Y2K ready. The CDs that will be produced every quarter will target IT specialists."
cnnfn.com
Here's a CD for people not on the net:
Consumers without Web access can order a "Year 2000 Resource CD." The CD is free, but shipping and handling is about $6. The CD may take up to six weeks to be mailed. To request the CD, call Microsoft toll-free at (888) MSFTY2K (673-8925).
expressnews.com
Saturday, Jun 5,1999
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