PC owners need to know whether their software understands the year 2000. The good news is that most commercial programs and all versions of Dos and Windows can handle year 2000 dates correctly, but there are exceptions, and while dates may be largely irrelevant to graphics software and games this is not true of spreadsheets, databases and accounting software. An accounts program that suddenly thinks all outstanding invoices are a hundred years in arrears is worse than useless.
Finding out whether your current software is up to scratch can be a tedious process. Testing it yourself is possible but itΓÇÖs not just a question of seeing if you can type in a four-digit date: you need to run a set of test data over a period of time. The best option is to contact the manufacturer of the software and ask. Many companies, including Microsoft, Lotus and Corel, run Internet web sites detailing which of their programs are year 2000 compliant, but in other cases youΓÇÖll have to enquire directly.
ItΓÇÖs impossible in the space available to list all the software that is year 2000 ready, and in any case the answer is not always straightforward.
