DOD-Y2K  ©2000
The only "date sanity checker" for your PC...
and it's FREE!

Is your computer "Y2K Compliant," and does that make you feel safe?

(Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!)

Even if your PC is fully "Y2K Compliant," what will prevent it from booting up with the wrong year after...

• the CMOS battery starts to die, and resets to January 1, 1980?

• the system "hiccoughs" and resets the CMOS date to 1980?

• a software glitch advances your system date 100 years into the future?  AOL^® software used to exhibit that strange behavior a couple versions back; they fixed their bug, has everyone else?

• one of your kids plays with the neat little clock in the bottom corner of your Windows^® 95/98 screen changing it to February of 2097?

Did you know...

• that many Windows^® programs won't operate correctly if the system date gets up into the 2030's or higher?   Windows^® 3.11 will only work properly through 31 Dec 2035!  See Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center for more details on it and other Microsoft^® Products.  If you want to get REALLY DEEP, read their white paper on: Windows Operating System Interactions with BIOS and Real Time Clock.  By the way, the Windows^® File Manager program (Usually found in most hard drives at c:\windows\winfile.exe) has updates for Windows^® 3.x and Windows^® for Workgroups 3.11 so they will display file dates of 2000 and beyond correctly.  Updates can be found here, and directly replace the existing Winfile program.

• if your system date is 1980 when you load some programs, that's the date that may be put on the files?  Future program installations may overwrite these "newer" files because their dates mistakenly say they're "older."  Better installation programs actually look "inside" the existing files to see their version numbers, but not all installation programs are that smart.

• you won't be able to tell which document or spreadsheet is your latest copy if some are dated in 1980 or some other bogus year?

"But my system is Y2K Compliant!"

That's great! It means that when midnight December 31, 1999 rolled around, your system clock should have rolled over to January 1, 2000.   The next time it rebooted, it should still have come up in the year 2000.  There are certain other capabilities your system should also have, such as getting February 29th in the right leap years in the 2000's as well.  There are free programs to check for this behavior, such as YMark2000^® from the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL), see their web site at: http://www.nstl.com/html/nstl_ymark2000.html.  Please note: NSTL does not guarantee accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the services provided in connection with the YMark2000^® program.  It seems to be a pretty reasonable test, and many companies have used it as their client list shows.

"What does DOD-Y2K check do?"

It checks your system date each time your system boots up, and it will alert you if your date is outside a preset range of years, then gives you the opportunity to change it.  The program is not memory resident (not TSR), so it doesn't use up your RAM.  It just does a sanity check on the date and terminates if the date is within normal parameters, or within a range of years you can preset! 

• By default, any date earlier than 1999 is obviously invalid, so it is the default Lower Year Limit.

• The Upper Year Limit is preset at 2030.   The Absolute Upper Year Limit is 2079.

• Both limits can be overridden with command line switches, /L:2001 would set the Lower Year Limit to 2001.  Put DOD-Y2K /L:2001 in your AUTOEXEC.BAT after 2001 begins and even 2000 will become an invalid year to boot your system.  You can even bring the Upper Year Limit down some if desired, the command line DOD-Y2K /L:2000 /U:2010 would give you a ten-year range of valid dates.  For more details, see the DOD-Y2K.TXT file.

• With a valid date (according to your settings) the following screen would display when run in AUTOEXEC.BAT, then the system would continue to boot.  No extra delay has been added to this display screen, it will flash up and keep booting.

If one of the default dates has been overridden by /L or /U, a status screen will display for three seconds confirming that the override is in effect, then booting will continue.

"What if my system is not Y2K compliant?"

If the only problem your system has is the automatic rollover to the year 2000 (if it wants to go to 1900 instead) this program should be able to help.  If your computer was on at midnight on December 31, 1999, the Real Time Clock (RTC) inside would have gone to 1900, but DOS and Windows keep track of their own time, so you probably wouldn't have noticed, much less been affected, until the next time the system was rebooted (powered off then on again).   If your system was turned off at that time, the RTC will still have gone to 1900. 

Regardless of being on or off when the new millennium rolled around, the next time you booted the system, the motherboard BIOS would have found the year 1900 in your RTC and mistakenly converted it to 1980.  When DOD-Y2K is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, it will notice such a date error and put up a warning screen, explaining the problem, and allowing you to correct the date before booting continues.   DOD-Y2K won't "fix" the RTC or BIOS, and won't handle incorrect leap year problems if your system is susceptible to them, but staying in the right year each time you turn the system on would certainly help your situation.  This free program beats buying a new motherboard right now, but even a new motherboard that is Y2K compliant can still have the CMOS clock reset to a bogus year.

"Did you say it's free?"

Yes, I said free!  As a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, and an extremely patriotic one at that, I saw this as a way to give something to my country above and beyond my active duty service.  I originally envisioned releasing this to the Department of Defense only, then realized that the whole country could benefit from it.  So here it is.  This is a free Y2K+ program, meaning that it is useful long after the Y2K rollover has passed.  No licenses, registration or fees are applicable, although donations would be a welcome surprise, and greatly appreciated!  If you feel this program will save you time, money or aggravation, or just give you a little more peace of mind, just send me an email for my current mailing address to send a donation to ($1? $5? whatever).  Use the email address , and if your organization decides to use this program, please let me know.  I won't charge them for it, but I'd like to display a list of users outside the DOD.

"What systems does DOD-Y2K work on?"

The software has been tested on a variety of "PC" platforms, from '386 through Pentium III, including the AMD K5 and 6, and from DOS 3.x through Windows^® 95/98.  It has not been tested on IBM OS2 Warp^® products, if you try it let me know how it worked.  The 32-bit version is under development for Windows NT^® platforms, this version will not work on Windows NT^®.

Download DOD-Y2K version 1.5 for DOS 3.x through Windows^® 95/98
(ZIP file): dod-y2k.zip

View/download the DOD-Y2K "Readme" text file: dod-y2k.txt
which includes important warnings and the following information and disclaimer:

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