Description:
PCfix 2000 doesn't attempt to determine whether a system is year-2000-compliant. Rather, it assumes the system is not compliant and verifies the Y2K-compliance of a key piece of system data each time your computer starts up. Here's how it works. When an operating system--such as Windows 98--starts, it refers to a battery-powered device on the motherboard called the real-time clock (RTC), which keeps track of the time of day even when the computer is off. The RTC passes the time and date to the operating system (OS), which then makes them available to applications that request time and date information. PCfix 2000 inserts itself between the RTC and the OS at boot time, making sure that the date the OS takes in is Y2K-compliant. If the RTC attempts to pass a bad date, PCfix 2000 catches the error, reformats the date, and passes it along. The OS is none the wiser. The approach seems to work, but the user interface is sloppy (it refers to the publisher's "Web sight"), and the installation routine is faulty. For example, it won't let you specify a drive other than drive C for installation. Another strike against it: it's also very difficult to uninstall PCfix 2000 once it is installed. These are cosmetic problems, though. Stick with PCfix 2000 if you like its way of intercepting OS calls to the RTC at startup. As a final safety measure, you might also like to scan your programs and data with Year 2000 Now software. --David Wall
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