On the front page of Canberra Times Sunday Times the main heading was “Australia Y2K bug-free” but column 7 said there was a little bug. The ABC TV said that someone had found a minor clock problem and I had the same experience. I was advised by Microsoft to change my clock to 4-digit year display and there would be no problems. I did so on my 2 computers which use Windows 3.1 and 95. On both clocks, the date on New Year’s Day was 4-1-1980 which I changed to 1-1-2000. I have so far found no other problems. So I would be grateful to you if you could explain something about the clock program and what happened to my computer.

The problems concerning the date roll over that you have is due to the fact that Windows 3.1 is a fairly old piece of software and may have a few Y2K bugs in it, and that Windows 95 does have some recognised Y2K bugs in it and there is a patch to fix these (which is explained in more detail below). There is not much you can do about Windows 3.1 but to fix Windows 95 I suggest that you download the Microsoft Windows 95 Year 2000 patch. These should fix whatever Y2K problems concerning Windows 95 you have, or may experience in the future. You can download this patch from windowsupdate.microsoft.com. if you are using a compatible version of Windows and Internet Explorer. The alternate, and more easier place where you can download this patch from, is www.download.com . At the site, click on the ‘Y2K’ link under the search engine area, on the main page of Download.com. The links to download the patches relevant to your version of Windows will be displayed on the following page once you have clicked the ‘Y2K’ link (the patch name is Windows 95 Y2K Update). However, even if you download and install these patches I still suggest you leave your date format in 4-digits to avoid any other Y2K problems which may arise with Windows or other third-party software.