Given the recent rants from Windows users that their machines won't upgrade, Microsoft did a weird solution - backdating all drivers, event recent ones to June 21, 2006. But of all the dates, why was June 21, 2006 chosen?

Microsoft blog explained that even storage space drivers are set in June 21, 2006 even if it didn't exist yet that time. The tech giant found out that logic instead of technical reasoning should be employed to "cheat" the Windows-based computers. All drivers are then backdated to retain the same timestamp while it is just the driver version number that changes.

The blog explained that Windows is using several criteria to rank the worthiness of each driver. To ensure a foolproof approach, Windows will scrape the best match by looking if the driver operates according to the same hardware ID. Of course, all drivers, recent or old have the same hardware ID so there is going to be a tie. Secondly, it is going to look after the timestamp and last criterion is a file version number.

By intentionally backdating native drivers, custom drivers by third-party manufacturers are accorded an upper preference and priority, developer Zac explained in a Windows subReddit. Microsoft ensures that these custom drivers will not be overwritten when Windows introduces new OS with backdated native drivers. Thus, avoiding the need for third-party hardware manufacturers to sync their dates with that of Microsoft's.

Another issue that was addressed through backdating Windows drivers is hardware compatibility. Third-party hardware deploy custom drivers to make them run smoothly on Windows PC but will soon become unusable if forced to use native drivers instead.

It might sound illogical that all Windows drivers that were created byhe t brightest minds have "overlooked" the timestamp. June 21, 2006 is a date that works out to ensure that users can pack third-party hardware in their computers without worrying of intrusive Windows-based drivers.