Year 10,000 problem

The year 10,000 problem is the collective name for all of potential software bugs that will be created in the year 10,000, when the number of digits needed to store a year increases from four to five. This is the same type of error that came up in the year 2000 problem. In the Year 2000 problem, programmers used two digits to store a year, assuming that their software would not be used in the year 2000. Currently, much software is not year 10,000 safe, but it is assumed that by the year 10,000, the changes that will take place in hardware and in software will render our current software obsolete and unusable.

Some operating systems are not able to handle dates beyond the 21st century. For example, the calendar in Windows XP ends at the year 2099. However recent Windows operating systems allow a "sliding-window" approach (the window of 1930-2029), and dates can be adjusted forward (for example, adjusting to 1950-2049), with the associated loss of representation of earlier dates.