Speaker A
[Intro] Hi! Back in 2017, I once made a quick video about what happens if you set a date where the year exceeds four digits.
Exploring Windows 11 behavior when setting the system year to 10,000 and its impact on stability and functionality.
Key Takeaways
- Windows 11 cannot properly handle system dates beyond four-digit years, leading to major instability.
- Modifying boot parameters via BCDEdit allows setting unsupported years but causes severe system issues.
- Core Windows services and networking components are heavily impacted by invalid date settings.
- Legacy systems like Windows XP handled this scenario with more grace compared to modern Windows 11.
- The year 10,000 is effectively treated as year zero due to four-digit year constraints in Windows.
What the video covers
- The video revisits a 2017 experiment testing system behavior when the year exceeds four digits, now applied to Windows 11.
- Windows 11's calendar limits are explored, showing a maximum year of 2121 in the taskbar and 2099 in the Control Panel.
- The presenter demonstrates how to enable editing boot parameters to set a custom year beyond normal limits using BCDEdit.
- Setting the system year to 10,000 causes severe system slowdowns, high CPU usage, and instability in core services and UI elements.
- Explorer.exe becomes unstable, repeatedly crashing and restarting, while some apps like Paint and Notepad behave differently under this condition.
- Network and synchronization services heavily contribute to system load and hangs when the year is set to 10,000.
- Internet access is blocked due to the system clock being far ahead, and some UWP apps fail to function properly or crash.
- Compared to Windows XP, Windows 11 is less stable under this scenario, with more severe performance degradation and system hangs.
- Repeated reboots worsen the system state, causing graphical issues and extremely low cursor frame rates.
- The root cause is the system's four-digit year limitation, causing the year 10,000 to be misinterpreted as year zero.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Background
- 00:27Windows 11 Date Limits Overview
- 00:50Preparing to Set Custom Year
- 02:27Using BCDEdit to Enable Year Editing
- 03:07Setting Date and Booting with Custom Year
- 03:50System Behavior at High Year Values
- 04:48Application and Service Failures
- 06:10Comparison with Windows XP Stability
- 07:10System Degradation Over Time
- 07:42Explanation of the Year 10000 Issue
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
I tested all this on Windows XP, and the result was not that I was quite impressed, but I was very surprised.
Speaker A
But the system still came out in 2001. More than 20 years have passed, now Windows 11 has long been released, and, in principle, it would be nice to check there the presence of this, so to speak, trick.
Speaker A
In this video, we take a look at how Windows 11 works when installing the 10K year and find out what causes it and why it does so.
Speaker A
So, let's start. This is the usual version of Windows 11, so there is nothing interesting about it.
Speaker A
If you look at the calendar from the taskbar, you can see that the annual limit is 2121. In fact, it's 100 years since the release of Windows 11 - recall, it came out in 2021.
Speaker A
Although in the classic Control Panel add-on there is a limit to 2099, then flipping through the annual list is simply impossible - it stupidly returns back.
Speaker A
But okay, you can set any year in the system in one simple way. If you thought about editing the boot.ini file, I hasten to disappoint you - it is not here since Windows Vista, when the new boot loader - Windows Boot Manager - came.
Speaker A
And through programs like EasyBCD is not very interesting. It is not a good idea to edit boot parameters through the registry, because the system rolls everything back during restarts.
Speaker A
Therefore, open a command prompt as administrator and type the command "bcdedit /set optionsedit 1". BCDEdit is a built-in command line program for managing the BCD configuration file used by the Windows boot loader starting with Vista.
Speaker A
The "/set" function sets some value for the selected boot item to the Windows loader.
Speaker A
But we have one system installed on the virtual machine, so this will all apply to Windows 11.
Speaker A
The "optionsedit" parameter specifies to enable such a setting as "Change options before full system startup". It can be set to 0, 1, yes, or no.
Speaker A
That is to say, on and off. In our case, we include it simply by writing the number 1.
Speaker A
After all this, the system can be safely restarted. But before rebooting, we set the date of December 31 and the time close to midnight.
Speaker A
And during the boot, instead of the Windows logo, you get a screen like this where you can set your parameters before starting the system - reminiscent of Windows XP with editing the BOOT.INI file.
Speaker A
Only there we did it in the system itself, but here it happens in the loader.
Speaker A
To set a year without asking the system to display the date from the BIOS, we just add the /YEAR= parameter at the end and write the year we want.
Speaker A
Press Enter, the Windows logo appears, and boot begins... and after logging in we see the year we set.
Speaker A
But there is one thing: the system begins to slow down very much, and in some places it is simply unbearable.
Speaker A
In Task Manager, the CPU just hits the ceiling. The system is even hanging on some simple actions.
Speaker A
Even opening Paint from Explorer is already a high-level task for the system. The calendar and any network or sound settings simply cannot be opened.
Speaker A
They simply do not show up, although I have already clicked on them, and more than once.
Speaker A
But the Start menu works - already not bad. However, the system is holding up.
Speaker A
If you look at the Task Manager, the culprits of this celebration are almost the entire Windows networking stack and the services group, which is responsible for synchronizing and storing user account data.
Speaker A
And now that we've worked it all out, we're waiting for the 10K Year. Well, dear friends, Happy New Year! I wish you happiness, health...
Speaker A
Okay, that's not what we're talking about. All in all, the system has moved past the last four-digit year and the first, beautiful and five-digit year, the ten-thousandth, has come.
Speaker A
But to all the hangs and other problems, a new one is added: unstable explorer.exe work. Explorer starts to hang and reboot cyclically. It works for a while, then suddenly hangs and restarts abruptly, and so on in a circle.
Speaker A
Applications at least open, but only from the task manager. For example, I opened Paint and now just write something random for the test.
Speaker A
When saving the file, Paint suddenly tells us that "The parameter is incorrect." Where exactly, why - the system does not explain. Notepad here opens and saves files without any problems. And in the properties of the text file here correctly displays the date of creation and last change: January 1, 10000.
Speaker A
The classic Control Panel here works, but its UWP version does not work: works for a couple of seconds, hangs, and exits.
Speaker A
Ha-ha, classic... To go on the Internet with such a date is something out of the category of stupid and absurd, as we simply will not let us in and will say a la "Hey, your clock is ahead of the world, but quickly put it right."
Speaker A
Now I want to see a photo. The app "Photos" at least opens, but something it does not show photos.
Speaker A
Either Paint didn't save that photo, or it's a bug after all. I hope it's the former. [Since the file is 0KB, the application should have shown this inscription.] And if you request file information from this application, it instantly crashes.
Speaker A
On the whole, the system somehow, but alive. But to be honest, Windows XP was much more stable than Windows 11 - yes, XP also hung in this situation, but at least it tried to respond to user requests despite the load, and after a reboot everything rolled back and the system felt great.
Speaker A
Okay, back to the topic. If you restart the system, it's even worse - there comes out a complete "brick," the system just hangs during startup, but I can still move the cursor.
Speaker A
And over time, it simply knocked down the screen resolution and the system, to put it mildly, begins to feel awful - even the cursor frame rate works at 1 FPS :D Such a bug these days is just some kind of common trick, because first of all: to 10000 is like walking to Moscow (Russian joke), although probably even much more;
Speaker A
Secondly, I, and you too, simply will not live to see this moment. So there's nothing to worry about.
Speaker A
And why does this happen, why does the system behave this way set at 10K year?
Speaker A
The point is that when the year 10000 occurs, the systems will start to perceive it as year zero, because the system's year is specified in four digits.
Speaker A
And, in fact, that's how it works. In addition to the 10000 year, there are many other interesting annual values at which various interesting things happen.
Speaker A
If I interest you in any way, 2,000 likes under this video and I'm making a video about it.
Speaker A
And basically, that's all I wanted to show. And that's all. Leave a like if this video is so interesting for you! Also subscribe to the channel to support my creativity and reach 50K subscribers.
Speaker A
Thanks for watching and see you again!
Topics:Windows 11year 10000system date bugBCDEditWindows boot loadersystem stabilityexplorer.exe crashnetworking issuesWindows XP comparisondate limit
