Sorry, I was not specific enough. The issue is the DATE format, which is apparently the "default windows format", and not what is specified via "Regional and Language Options" of the current user, because that one shows "2012-01-03" as the "Short date" (which DIR uses), and "Tuesday, 2012. January 3." as the "Long Date", but TIME /S reports "System time updated to : Tue Jan 3, 2012 20:38:17" which is not a format I'd ever select.