I read your column regularly to try and learn as much as I can. Your answer to a recent Y2K question regarding date changeover left me more confused than before I began. I use Win 95 and tried to check/reset my dates as you specified but my ‘Regional Settings’ Control Panel is vastly different from what you described. My sub-headings under the Date tab are:
Calendar Type: ‘Gregorian Calendar’
Short Date: ‘Short Date sample 30/08/99′ (See *Note below)
Short Date Style: ‘dd/MM/yy’
Date Separator: ‘/’
Long Date: ‘Long Date sample Monday, 30 August 1999′ (See *Note below)
Long Date style ‘dddd MMMM yyyy’
*Note: The two sample locations are not highlighted and are therefore not changeable. How do I carry out the changes you state?

The reason that your ‘Regional Settings’ control panel is so vastly different to mine is that you are running Windows 95 and I am running Windows 98 SE. Windows became more and more Y2K compliant with succeeding versions, which is why Windows 98 has more Y2K compatibility features, like I described, than Windows 95. It is for this reason that you can’t do the things which I described in that column to make sure that your Windows 95 is Y2K compatible. It is not necessary, however to upgrade to Windows 98. Windows 95 is fine so even though you can’t carry out the changes that I suggested, I would not worry unduly about anything happening regarding your computer and the Y2K. For peace of mind though there is a large selection of free Y2K testers and fixers which you can download from www.download.com.