Microsoft confesses DOS will cause chaos in the year 2000

The complex engineering of Microsoft's operating systems means that many applications will not work in the next century, it has emerged.

A white paper from the company has shown that both application software and operating systems suffer from the limitations of MS-DOS.

When IBM and Microsoft fell out several years ago over the DOS operating system, both companies took their own directions. MS-DOS 5.0 developed after the split between IBM and Microsoft. Later versions of DOS are safe, but previous versions used two-figure dates.

Microsoft admits it has a problem. The paper says: 'Even with Microsoft products it is possible for applications to perform incorrectly if developers have not used built-in data formats and functions.' It advises customers to take steps to ensure their applications handle the transition to the year 2000.

Some versions of Access, Excel and Microsoft Project - post DOS 5.0 - are also affected. They use two figure rather than four-figure dates.

Three versions of Microsoft Access are mentioned in the white paper.

Two are branded Access 95 but one has a data limit of 1999, while the other uses long dates and so holds good until 9999.

Excel 95 also appears to have two versions. The date limit for one is 2019 while the other is 2078. Microsoft Project 95 will hold its ground until 2049.

The news has big implications for developers who have used DOS rather than Microsoft-developed projects to build their corporate applications. Companies running Windows for Workgroups or versions of Windows 3.x which use the DOS Fat 16 file system (or above) seem to be safe.

An IBM representative said that versions of IBM DOS 6.0 and above are free from the problem. The company has set up a special task force to address the year 2000 problem, he said.