diff --git a/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/LoadLogTest.h b/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/LoadLogTest.h
index e867c22d573328aa2e0c8838d538fc538ff9f31f..39de51d75ad5c38d0e82cf917281488b69989b70 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/LoadLogTest.h
+++ b/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/LoadLogTest.h
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ public:
     std::string timeSeriesString = l_timeSeries->value();
 
     // test that log file read in ok
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,30), "Fri Nov 16 13:25:48 2007   END" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,26), "2007-Nov-16 13:25:48   END" );
   }
 
 
@@ -124,27 +124,27 @@ public:
     Property *l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37125_ICPevent.txt") );
     TimeSeriesProperty<std::string> *l_timeSeriesString = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<std::string>*>(l_property);
     std::string timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesString->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,32), "Tue Nov 13 15:19:13 2007   BEGIN" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,28), "2007-Nov-13 15:19:13   BEGIN" );
 
     l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37125_cphs_6.txt") );
     TimeSeriesProperty<double> *l_timeSeriesDouble = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<double>*>(l_property);
     timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesDouble->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,27), "Tue Nov 13 15:16:20 2007  0" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,23), "2007-Nov-13 15:16:20  0" );
 
     l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37125_PROP3.txt") );
     l_timeSeriesDouble = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<double>*>(l_property);
     timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesDouble->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,27), "Tue Nov 13 15:16:20 2007  0" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,23), "2007-Nov-13 15:16:20  0" );
 
     l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37125_SE_He_Level.txt") );
     l_timeSeriesDouble = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<double>*>(l_property);
     timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesDouble->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,28), "Tue Nov 13 15:17:08 2007  -1" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,24), "2007-Nov-13 15:17:08  -1" );
 
     l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37125_TEMP1.txt") );
     l_timeSeriesDouble = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<double>*>(l_property);
     timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesDouble->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,27), "Tue Nov 13 15:16:20 2007  0" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,23), "2007-Nov-13 15:16:20  0" );
   }
   
 
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ public:
     Property *l_property = sample.getLogData( std::string("../../../../Test/Data/HRP37129_ICPevent.txt") );
     TimeSeriesProperty<std::string> *l_timeSeriesString = dynamic_cast<TimeSeriesProperty<std::string>*>(l_property);
     std::string timeSeriesString = l_timeSeriesString->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,30), "Fri Nov 16 13:25:48 2007   END" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( timeSeriesString.substr(0,26), "2007-Nov-16 13:25:48   END" );
   }
 
   
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/runTests.bat b/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/runTests.bat
index 8208a772e81c5b2328777c7d4401e5a669d820b8..acf5bb9c517c6c436ab3adc6e1630a3a21726a9e 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/runTests.bat
+++ b/Code/Mantid/DataHandling/test/runTests.bat
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ GOTO COMPILE
 
 :COMPILE
 echo "Compiling the test executable..."
-cl runner.cpp /I "..\..\..\Third_Party\include" /I "..\.." /I "..\inc"  /I "../../Kernel/inc" /I "../../API/inc" /I "../../Geometry/inc" /I "../../DataObjects/inc" /wd4275 /EHsc /MDd /W3 /nologo /c /ZI /TP 
+cl runner.cpp /I "..\..\..\Third_Party\include" /I "..\.." /I "..\inc"  /I "../../Kernel/inc" /I "../../API/inc" /I "../../Geometry/inc" /I "../../DataObjects/inc" /D_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /wd4275 /EHsc /MDd /W3 /nologo /c /ZI /TP 
 
 link /OUT:"runner.exe" /NOLOGO /LIBPATH:"../../Debug" /LIBPATH:"../../../Third_Party/lib/win32" /DEBUG /PDB:".\runner.pdb" Mantidkernel.lib Mantiddataobjects.lib Mantiddatahandling.lib Mantidgeometry.lib MantidAPI.lib runner.obj
   
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/inc/MantidKernel/TimeSeriesProperty.h b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/inc/MantidKernel/TimeSeriesProperty.h
index 845671e0bb81588539ec79c385eca262c7936c80..86f03f9b913c0068be05a8578dc766aefe5663e4 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/inc/MantidKernel/TimeSeriesProperty.h
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/inc/MantidKernel/TimeSeriesProperty.h
@@ -74,12 +74,9 @@ public:
 
     while ( p != m_propertySeries.end() )
     {
-      // asctime has the annoying feature of appending a '\n'
-      // hence the reason of first reading in the data-time into str
-      // before printing out this string minus the '\n'
-
-      std::string str(asctime(localtime(&(p->first))));
-      ins << str.substr(0,str.size()-1) << "  " << p->second << std::endl;
+      char buffer [25];
+      strftime (buffer,25,"%Y-%b-%d %H:%M:%S",localtime(&(p->first)));
+      ins << buffer << "  " << p->second << std::endl;
       p++;
     }
 
@@ -115,22 +112,22 @@ private:
   /// Create time_t instance from a ISO 8601 yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss input string
   std::time_t createTime_t_FromString(const std::string &str)
   {
-    struct std::tm * time_since_1990;
+    struct std::tm * time_since_1900;
  
     // create tm struct
 
     time_t rawtime;
     time( &rawtime );
-    time_since_1990 = localtime( &rawtime );
+    time_since_1900 = localtime( &rawtime );
 
-    time_since_1990->tm_year = atoi(str.substr(0,4).c_str()) - 1900;
-    time_since_1990->tm_mon = atoi(str.substr(5,2).c_str()) - 1;
-    time_since_1990->tm_mday = atoi(str.substr(8,2).c_str());
-    time_since_1990->tm_hour = atoi(str.substr(11,2).c_str());
-    time_since_1990->tm_min = atoi(str.substr(14,2).c_str());
-    time_since_1990->tm_sec = atoi(str.substr(17,2).c_str());
+    time_since_1900->tm_year = atoi(str.substr(0,4).c_str()) - 1900;
+    time_since_1900->tm_mon = atoi(str.substr(5,2).c_str()) - 1;
+    time_since_1900->tm_mday = atoi(str.substr(8,2).c_str());
+    time_since_1900->tm_hour = atoi(str.substr(11,2).c_str());
+    time_since_1900->tm_min = atoi(str.substr(14,2).c_str());
+    time_since_1900->tm_sec = atoi(str.substr(17,2).c_str());
 
-    return mktime(time_since_1990);
+    return mktime(time_since_1900);
   }
 
   /// static reference to the logger class
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/ConfigServiceTest.h b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/ConfigServiceTest.h
index df56b2922a43d3e61ff4fa46950621d28f8a8b88..31556bf230cf21736d8f10666c23f1d8443e317b 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/ConfigServiceTest.h
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/ConfigServiceTest.h
@@ -86,7 +86,10 @@ public:
   void TestMissingProperty()
   {
 	  //Mantid.noses is not defined in the properties script 
-	  TS_ASSERT_THROWS_ANYTHING( std::string legCountString = configSvc->getString("mantid.noses"));
+	  std::string noseCountString = configSvc->getString("mantid.noses");
+    //this should return an empty string
+
+	  TS_ASSERT_EQUALS(noseCountString, "");
   }
   
  
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/TimeSeriesPropertyTest.h b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/TimeSeriesPropertyTest.h
index 827be373c425fd38438ee00804fe6a899f096e7d..fbb0091d7597e8489929009c6d1dcfaf309363f8 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/TimeSeriesPropertyTest.h
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/TimeSeriesPropertyTest.h
@@ -62,11 +62,11 @@ public:
 	void testValue()
 	{
     const std::string dString = dProp->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( dString.substr(0,30), "Fri Nov 30 16:17:00 2007  9.99" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( dString.substr(0,27), "2007-Nov-30 16:17:00  9.99\n" );
     const std::string iString = iProp->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( iString.substr(0,27), "Fri Nov 30 16:17:00 2007  1" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( iString.substr(0,24), "2007-Nov-30 16:17:00  1\n" );
     const std::string sString = sProp->value();
-    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( sString.substr(0,30), "Fri Nov 30 16:17:00 2007  test" );
+    TS_ASSERT_EQUALS( sString.substr(0,27), "2007-Nov-30 16:17:00  test\n" );
 	}
 
 	void testCasting()
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/runTests.bat b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/runTests.bat
index fe987f2490b4265a1ac9abdb310a5bd955a5dd1c..55b2391318095cbb600e5e19f627cd1b6975196e 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/runTests.bat
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Kernel/test/runTests.bat
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ GOTO COMPILE
 
 :COMPILE
 echo "Compiling the test executable..."
-cl runner.cpp /I "..\..\..\Third_Party\include" /I "..\.." /I "../../API/inc" /I "..\inc" /EHsc /MDd /W3 /wd4275 /nologo /c /ZI /TP 
+cl runner.cpp /I "..\..\..\Third_Party\include" /I "..\.." /I "../../API/inc" /I "..\inc" /D_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /EHsc /MDd /W3 /wd4275 /nologo /c /ZI /TP 
 
 link /OUT:"runner.exe" /NOLOGO /LIBPATH:"../../Debug" /LIBPATH:"../../../Third_Party/lib/win32" /DEBUG /PDB:".\runner.pdb" Mantidkernel.lib MantidApi.lib runner.obj
   
diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Main/Main.cpp b/Code/Mantid/Main/Main.cpp
index 69c2f878f379de380f14203b0eefa7d68b55bc47..4f0a04aadd4e8acf5fad1fd0d1e36191a449363f 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Main/Main.cpp
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Main/Main.cpp
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ int main()
 {
 
   FrameworkManager* fm = FrameworkManager::Instance();
-  fm->initialize();
+  fm->initialize();
 
   Benchmark b;
   b.RunPlusTest();