Product Guide. Microsoft will publish a Year 2000 Product Guide. The Product Guide will be the main source for information about Microsoft’s Year 2000 effort. This guide will be updated as information becomes available. The first release will include information about the core products and how they handle dates. The information in this guide comes directly from the product teams. The features of the guide have been driven by customer request. With its Product Guide, Microsoft will raise the bar for the quality of information provided by manufacturers to customers.
Quick reference: The products in the guide will be listed in one of five ways:
Compliant: The product meets Microsoft’s standards of compliance. (Product may require a prerequisite service pack or patch.)
Compliant with minor issues: The product meets Microsoft’s standard of compliance but has some "minor" outstanding issues that have no fix or have a fix on the way but not yet delivered.
Not compliant: The product does not meet Microsoft’s standards for compliance.
Testing yet to be completed: The product is still undergoing test.
Will not be tested: The product is not scheduled to be tested for compliance.
The product information will detail the version number, the language of release, the range of dates used for data, the release date of the product, and any prerequisites for compliance. (If a product needs a patch or service pack, it will be listed and hot-linked for download.)
Dependencies. Any time a product is considered for year 2000 issues it must be put in the framework of dependencies. There will also be product and clock dependencies listed for each product. The Microsoft Product Guide will allow the reader to quickly identify that other products are in use to make the solution work.
Other information. The following information will be available for each product:
- Date handling, including the handling of two-digit shortcuts
- Reasons for non-compliance and solutions, if applicable
- Common user errors which can lead to date problems
- Testing recommendations for what portions of the product IT professionals should look at to see how dates were handled
Easy-to-find information. . The Product Guide will be continually updated as product test information becomes available. The user interface of the guide will give the viewer the ability to quickly locate the most current information of interest.
Features
