By now you've heard all the jokes, read the analyses, and listened to the doomsday predictions about what will happen to computers everywhere when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 1999. But what about the system that's sitting on your desktop? What calamity is likely to befall your own PC at the dawning of the new millennium?

The good news is that Windows 98 and NT 4.0 don't have any known problems with the Year 2000. And even earlier versions of Windows won't suddenly go berserk when the milestone is reached (at least not as a result of the date). But you may discover a few quirks lurking in Windows as you enter the new century.

Upgrade your copy of File Manager. If you use File Manager ù whether in Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, or early releases of Windows 95 ù expect to see some funny-looking dates for files created after January 1, 2000.

Caption: File Manager will show garbled dates for files created in the Year 2000 ù unless you upgrade to a newer version

Windows 95 users can find out whether their File Manager will have Year 2000 troubles by choosing StartûFindûFiles or Folders, typing winfile.exe, and pressing <Enter>. Make sure Details is checked on the View menu so that you can see the file's date. If the file date is earlier than 11/3/97, your version of the operating system has the garbled-date problem.

To upgrade your copy of File Manager, download w31filup.exe (for Windows 3.x), wfwfilup.exe (for Windows for Workgroups 3.11), or w95filup.exe (for Windows 95). These files are on our cover CD, or if you prefer, you can download them from support.microsoft.com/support/downloads; then follow the links to the Updates and Utilities section for your particular version of Windows. If you are using Windows 3.x, move the downloaded file to an otherwise empty directory. In all Windows versions, double-click the .exe file to extract the files and instructions you need (Windows 3.x) or to start the upgrade installer (Windows 95).

Correct bugs in DOS commands. If you use the DOS prompt in Windows 95, you'll notice other minor glitches. For starters, the dir command will display only two digits to represent the date in file listings. And in the date command, if you try to set a new date using only two digits from 00 to 79, you'll receive an Invalid date error message. The workaround is to use four digits when setting a new date with the date command.

For a permanent solution to the dir and date problems, download and install win95y2k.exe from Microsoft's support site, as explained above. Even this upgrade isn't without quirks, though: if, after upgrading, you use the date command to specify a date using only two digits from 00 to 79, Windows will assume you mean a year between 2000 and 2079. If you specify a two-digit date from 80 to 99, Windows will take it to mean a year between 1980 and 1999.