diff --git a/harbour/ChangeLog b/harbour/ChangeLog
index b6fd4415e5..fa56e4dde8 100644
--- a/harbour/ChangeLog
+++ b/harbour/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+19990908-01:33 EDT Paul Tucker <ptucker@sympatico.ca>
+  * source/rtl/environ.c
+    corrected to work with msvc.
+    The format passed to sprintf is now a variable.  Under Windows,
+    the hb_osletter is actually the build number, and the default
+    format was not printing it correctly.
+
 19990908-00:05 EDT David G. Holm <dholm@jsd-llc.com>
   * source/rtl/environ.c
     ! Version 1.43 added Windows code to detect the Windows version, but
diff --git a/harbour/source/rtl/environ.c b/harbour/source/rtl/environ.c
index c9f9a26ee6..ad8928d2a1 100644
--- a/harbour/source/rtl/environ.c
+++ b/harbour/source/rtl/environ.c
@@ -11,10 +11,16 @@
 /* Note: The following #ifdef block for __IBMCPP__ must
          be ahead of any and all #include statements!
 */
+
 #ifdef __IBMCPP__
    #define INCL_DOSMISC
 #endif
 
+#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (defined(_Windows) || defined(_WIN32))
+   #define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
+   #include "windows.h"
+#endif
+
 #include "extend.h"
 #include "errorapi.h"
 #include "hbver.h"
@@ -45,6 +51,8 @@
 
 HARBOUR HB_OS( void )
 {
+   char *cformat = "%s %d.%02d%c";
+
 #ifdef __MPW__
 /* TODO: not implemented yet */
    hb_retc( "MacOS" );
@@ -108,7 +116,6 @@ HARBOUR HB_OS( void )
              break;
 
          case VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT:
-
             hb_osmajor = osVer.dwMajorVersion;
             hb_osminor = osVer.dwMinorVersion;
             hb_osletter = osVer.dwBuildNumber;
@@ -122,6 +129,7 @@ HARBOUR HB_OS( void )
             hb_os = "Windows 32s";
             break;
       }
+      cformat = "%s %d.%02d.%04d";
    }
 #else
 #if defined(__MSC__) || defined(_MSC_VER)
@@ -212,11 +220,11 @@ HARBOUR HB_OS( void )
 
 #endif /* __GNUC__ */
 #endif /* __IBMCPP__ */
-
+   
    if( ! hb_os ) strcpy( version, "Unknown" );
    else if( hb_osmajor == -1 ) strcpy( version, hb_os );
    else if( hb_osmajor == -2 ) { /* NOP */ }
-   else sprintf( version, "%s %d.%02d%c", hb_os, hb_osmajor, hb_osminor, hb_osletter );
+   else sprintf( version, cformat, hb_os, hb_osmajor, hb_osminor, hb_osletter );
    hb_retc( version );
 #ifdef __DJGPP__
    hb_xfree( hb_os );