Microsoft finds bugs in Windows 2000 Japanese version

Source: Kyodo News Service/Associated Press Publication date: Feb 17, 2000 Just one of 63,000 known bugs in Windows 2000

TOKYO, Feb. 17 (Kyodo) -- (EDS: ADDING INFORMATION)

Thursday it has found bugs in the Japanese version of the Windows 2000 operating system (OS), including one that would display the wrong year on computer screens under certain conditions.

The Japan unit said it will deal with the problem by giving purchasers of the new OS free software to eliminate the bugs rather than by recalling the OS from retailers.

The information on the presence of the bugs in the OS was put on the home page of Microsoft's Japan unit Wednesday -- just a day before it released the Japanese version after midnight Thursday as originally planned.

Users of the new OS can download the software to remove the bugs from the relevant Web page.

If a user opts to display the traditional Japanese dating system as a default dating system and then downloads pages from Web sites made with some Web-page compilation systems, those sites would display the year as 3999 rather than 2000, Microsoft officials said.

Another bug prevents some network servers from distinguishing among printers and workstations with similar names.

The Japan unit discovered the bugs at the beginning of the month, they said.

But the company refrained from notifying news organizations and computer manufacturers that have installed the new OS on their new products of the presence of those bugs.

A Microsoft official said, "After making the software to fix the bugs, we tested the software for two weeks."

"We are sorry about the presence of those bugs, but we do not perceive it as a serious problem because the malfunctions could be triggered only in cases where a multiple number of conditions are met," the official said.

The Japan unit has already manufactured tens of thousands of packaged products of the new OS, they said.

"We have put notices on the packages telling purchasers to read advice on our company's home page," the official said.

An official at Fujitsu Ltd., which on Tuesday began marketing computers running the new OS, said, "We were informed by Microsoft of those bugs only on Thursday."

"We will determine how to respond to the problem Friday, when Microsoft is going to give us formal explanations," the official said.

IBM Japan Ltd., which will take the wraps off new desktop and notebook personal computers running the OS for corporate users from Friday, said it will put out the new products as scheduled.

"We want our customers to counteract the bugs simply by obtaining the software to fix them," an official at IBM Japan said.

Windows 2000 was developed as a successor to Windows NT 4.0, an operating system destined largely for corporate users requiring high-performance systems.

But the version to go on sale Friday also combines functions from Windows 98, which is targeted at the general public.

A Windows 2000 upgrade from Windows 98 carries an estimated price tag of 16,800 yen. Publication date: Feb 17, 2000 ) 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 21, 2000

Answers

Maybe it should be called "Windowing 2000."

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), February 21, 2000.

But we all knew that Gates wouldn't be ready to ship Windows 2000 until April 1901.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 21, 2000.

Context: Win2K is shipping with 63,000 (yes, sixty three THOUSAND) known bugs. Call them what you want: bugs, glitches, issues, focus areas (last one is the New Official Micro$oft Weasel Wording), there's a lot of them.

-- _ (_@_._), February 22, 2000.