In theory is this possible?

If my computer in 2004 had the date set to 2009 would this effect my hotmail account? i.e.. If I sent or received an email via hotmail in 04 could my hotmail account possibly show these emails as 09 just because my PC was set incorrectly? This seems impossible to me, which is what I am advising a friend who isn't so sure. Thanks

Well its can't because hotmail has its owning timing according to country you set which creating your id .so its nothing with your computer date. You mail show the time according to your country or GMT not look at your computer but yeah outlook can make some confusion if you are using hotmail id in outlook.

I routinely get SPAM emails date 2039

Yeah but is depend of the server date which sent you not the receiving server. If the smtp server is having date of 2004 then it can possible and hey "Keepitsimplestupid" nice nik ;)

Cool thanks. But if it wasn't spam, it was just a standard email which consisted of an original email, reply and a return reply then surely these could not ALL show the incorrect year in succession. In theory wouldn't hotmail need to be incorrect... it shouldn't have anything to do with country, server etc.