James had discovered two other PC users--one from New Zealand and one from the UK--each who had come across the same error, but in different programs. It would seem that we all forgot that not all English-speaking nations read the time and date the same. These two users had installed programs that used the default American time/date formatting (MM/DD/YYYY), and their Windows installation (which was geographically localized) failed to understand that, for example, 3/2/2010 equaled March 2nd (US standard), and not February 3rd (UK standard) .

Seems simple right? Just change the date/time format in the Windows clock and run WorldBench, right?

Nope.

James discovered that, in order for WorldBench to properly register the time and date from Windows, he needed to change the regional setting to literally any other locale, click Apply, then OK to dismiss the Windows Date and Time control panel, open it up again and then finally set it to the American formatting.

We think that this whole procedure completely flushed the registry strings that store the settings regarding how Windows sees the time/date format; without selecting another locale and applying/ok'ing it first, Windows will hang onto the registry strings and WorldBench will pick up on those.