NT 4.0 SP4 Status
According to Microsoft Support Online article Q230714 (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q230/7/14.ASP), SP4 solves most known Y2K problems. To ensure Y2K compliance, you might also need to update MDAC and IE, because compliant versions of MDAC and IE post-date the release of SP4. You'll find IE and MDAC versions, compliance requirements, and download locations later in this article. Officially, Microsoft plans to maintain SP4 Y2K compliance through January 1, 2001.
NT 4.0 SP3 Status
Microsoft released SP3 on July 29, 1996, which makes the service pack outdated. Although I doubt many sites are running an OS with a 3-year-old service pack, SP3 does handle most Y2K concerns gracefully. You must install an additional 12 hotfixes or bug fixes to correct fundamental date problems.
After you apply the additional fixes, eight problems with dates of 2000 and later remain unresolved. These problems include WINS and DHCP expiration dates, custom date properties in Word 97 documents, failure to rollover a BIOS date, OLE automation, an incorrect date in the System Information applet, 4-digit years in non-English versions, improper dates in the Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 HTML Administrator, and date problems creating Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) internal certificates on leap day. Because these concerns are mostly cosmetic, Microsoft labels them as acceptable deviations, which is why SP3 has a Compliant # rating. Microsoft plans to maintain a baseline Y2K compliance of SP3 until January 2001.
NT 3.51 Status
It hard to believe, but according to Microsoft's Year 2000 Web site, NT 3.51 is compliant after you install SP5 and the NT 3.51 Y2K update. You can download the English version of SP5 at ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/ winnt/winnt-public/fixes/ usa/NT351/ussp5, and you'll find the English version of Y2K-fix at ftp.microsoft.com/ bussys/winnt/ winnt-public/fixes/ usa/NT351/hotfixes-postSP5/Y2K-fix. International versions of SP5 and Y2K-fix are available at the same site in the appropriate country directory. At publication time, SP5 was available for all versions of NT 3.51 except Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified.
IE and Outlook Express Status
Several combinations of IE are Y2K compliant, including IE 5.0 and IE 4.01 with SP2. IE 4.01 SP1 with the SP1 Y2K update is also compliant. Microsoft intends to maintain IE 4.01 compliance until January 1, 2001. You can download IE 4.01 SP1 files at http://www.microsoft.com/ msdownload/ iebuild/ie4sp1_win32/en/18174_INTL.htm, and you can download the
IE 4.01 SP2 files at http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ iebuild/ie4sp2_win32/en/ie4sp2_win32.htm.
Outlook Express is tied to IE, and users discovered a new problem in Outlook Express in June of this year. In some cases, Outlook Express misinterprets an incoming date when it is not "99" and translates it incorrectly to 2000 plus the 2-digit date (e.g., 97 turns into 2097). If you're going to stay with IE 4.01, you must also install the Outlook Express Y2k update along with SP1 or SP2. Information at the Microsoft web site is not clear as to the updates required. One reference indicates this data problem is corrrected in O98dtfix.exe which you can download at http://support.microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles/q193/ 6/04.asp. Another reference, article Q234680, indicates the update replaces only msoert.dll. I recommend you check both these articles before you download to ensure you install the correct and most recent Outlook update.
MDAC
Developers are familiar with MDAC, a collection of data connectivity components that includes ADO, Remote Data Service (RDS), OLE DB, ODBC, and several OLE DB and ODBC drivers. Microsoft bundles the components into a redistributable setup file called mdac_typ.exe. To ensure proper operation of MDAC 1.5 and 2.0 SP2 components, you must install a Y2K update for the Microsoft Jet Database Engine 3.5. MDAC 2.1 SP1, which ships with IE 5.0, includes version 4.0 of the Jet engine, and thus does not require a Y2K update. You can download all versions of MDAC, including international versions, at http://www.microsoft.com/data.
Other NT-Related Required Product Updates
In addition to the products I've already discussed, several others require updating. I doubt many sites are running the following older versions, but if you are, you'll appreciate knowing the necessary corrective action.
- Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI) 1.0 (upgrade to version 2.0 or newer)
- Microsoft FrontPage 97 (install FrontPage 97 Y2K updates)
- Microsoft FrontPage 97 Server Extensions (install FrontPage 98 Server Extensions)
- Microsoft Internet Locator Service (ILS) 1.0 (install version 2.0)
- Site Server Express 2.0 (uninstall version 2.0 and install version 3.0)
- Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) 1.0 and 1.1 (install version 2.0 from the Option Pack)
Y2K Product Summary
I realize this article is a veritable tangle of products, versions, and service pack levels. If you got lost in the jungle of details, Table 1 can help. This Y2k Product Summary summarizes the products, versions, service pack levels, and corrective action you must take to make each product Y2K compliant. I've included what I consider the most widely deployed products for NT. I've also included the sidebars "Common Products You Don't Need to Update" and "Y2K URL Quick Reference" which summarizes most of the downloads I've discussed in this article.
The Microsoft Year 2000 Product Analyzer
The Year 2000 Product Analyzer runs on Intel NT 3.51 systems, Intel and Alpha NT 4.0 systems, and Windows 9x. The analyzer identifies installed products by the executable name, compares the version of each .exe file against a database of compliant versions, and generates an HTML report of the results. If you want the results in text file or Excel spreadsheet format, click the custom button and select the desired output format.
When I ran this utility on my BDC, it failed to even identify NT Server. I might have downloaded an older version, or maybe the Product Analyzer gets confused when there are incomplete multiple roots on one or more disk drives. I recommend you test the utility carefully before you rely on the accuracy of its analysis.
Microsoft updates the compliance database every 2 weeks, and the Product Analyzer will download the most recent version of the database before it runs. Be warned that if you rename executables to hide them from users, the Product Analyzer will not recognize the product. The analyzer is available in English and 12 other languages, and you can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/ technet/year2k/pca/pca.htm.
For More Information
Microsoft's Year 2000 Resource Center has a large collection of Y2K documentation. The Product Guide provides information about all Microsoft products, including international editions. If you're running a product that does not appear in the list under Other NT-Related Required Product Updates or in Table 1, I recommend you research the Y2K problems at the Year 2000 product page, http://www.microsoft.com/ technet/year2k/product/ product.asp. Remember, this article is only valid as of August 20, 1999, and some of the updates might be replaced or superceded later this year.
The amount of data at the Microsoft Web site is overwhelming, but it's a big job to document all the versions and components of each product, and cross-product interaction. For example, at the product page, you can search for a specific product such as Outlook Express and see a list of 121 versions. You can also search by release date for recently issued updates. When I searched for all updates released since June 1, 1999, the search returned 1348 matches, primarily because every international version is listed separately. Whew! So, get a fresh cup of coffee or the caffeine of your choice and be prepared to do some serious reading.
End of Article
Jeff Petersen September 08, 1999