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ISO 8601 Dates: What They Are and How to Use Them
Contents 1. What They Are 2. In Programs 3. In Output 4. On Personal Computers
5. Fix Data/Programs A1. Important Dates A2. Leap Years A3. A Y2K Parable  

Setting ISODATE formats for Personal Computer Operating Systems

 

 
   
 
     
Windows 3.1
  Note that the Windows 3.1 File Manager has a significant Year 2000 Bug. For more information, see File Manager Shows Garbled Date for Year 2000 or Later. A link to a corrected WINFILE.EXE file for downloading is at the bottom that page.
  1. Open Main, Control Panel, and International.
  2. In the Date Format box, click Change.
  3. In the Short Date Format box:
    1. Click the YMD radio button.
    2. Type "-" in the Separator space
    3. Check the Day Leading Zero, Month Leading Zero, and Century boxes.
    4. Click OK in the International - Date Format window.
  4. In the Time Format box, click Change, and then:
    1. Click the radio button for 24 hour.
    2. Click the radio button for Leading Zero "09:15".
    3. Click OK in the International - Time Format window.
  5. Click OK in the International window

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Windows 95/98/NT
  Note that the Windows 95 File Manager has a significant Year 2000 bug. For more information, see File Manager Shows Incorrect Date for Year 2000 or Later. A link to a corrected WINFILE.EXE file for downloading is at the bottom that page.
  1. In Control Panel, open Regional Settings, and click the Date tab.
  2. Highlight the Short Date Style: entry space and type "yyyy-mm-dd" in tha space. (This is not one of the pull-down choices, so you have to type it in yourself.)
  3. Click the Time tab, and set the Time Style to "HH:mm:ss". This is one of the pull-down choices here.
  4. Click OK.
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OS/2 Warp
  OS/2 Warp required a Fix Pack for full Year 2000 Compatibility.The latest OS/2 FixPaks are available though IBM's Beginner's Guide to Understanding OS/2 FixPaks.
  1. Open OS/2 System, System Setup, and Country.
  2. Click on the Date tab.
  3. Select the "Year-Month-Day" radio button.
  4. Click on the Time tab.
  5. Select the "24 Hour" radio button.
  6. Close the Country - Properties window.
  7. You will need to reboot OS/2 to see this change take effect.
  8. If you run Win-OS/2, you need to set ISODATE separately there; see the instructions for Windows 3.1 above.
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DOS
  The DOS DIR command will not display a four-digit year. However, the two-digit year it displays will be correct. This is a permanent restriction that will not be fixed.

To set ISODATE date format in DOS, edit your CONFIG.SYS file and add the following line: 

COUNTRY=086,,C:\dosdir\COUNTRY.SYS
where dosdir is the name of your DOS directory.

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This page last updated 2001-12-21. Please send comments and reports of broken links to the author: Roger Deschner
 
 

 
 

Using ISO 8601 Dates Previous: 3. In Output Next: 5. Fix Data/Programs

2001-12-21  ACCC Documentation
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