Windows ME... Any good?

How does ME rate compared to Win98se and Win2k?

I'm currently using 98se and was thinking of changing to 2k, but I just found ME in a bargin bin for a fiver, so I picked it up... is it worth changing, or should I wait and get 2000?

 

Hi JimmyHetfield

I would get the five back and apply
it towards the 2000 buy.
I have used 98SE and ME, 98SE is more stable.

 

It ain't worth it.

Full agreement.

BillyBob

 

Having had both Win98 and Windows Me, I would recommend you move up as you will pick up "System Restore" with WinMe.
This feature alone is worth the effort. Just make sure you you have the minimum system requirments of Pentium or equivalent 150MHz or higher, 32MB of Ram and at least 400MB of free hard drive space before you install. Run ScanDisk and Defrag then look at MY COMPUTER, Local Disc C, to see what you have on the drive prior to the upgrade.

While each OS has its problems and limitations, WinMe is fairly user friendly and has less compatibility issues with third party hardware and software than does Windows XP which was designed as its replacement. I did lose an old Adaptec SCSI board scanner that was not compatible with WinMe but with WinMe I installed an inboard multi input USB card and upgraded to a scanner that used a USB connection.

WinXP also uses an updated System Restore as this feature has been a lifesaver for many a user. WinMe still has access to DOS commands but was designed to move away from DOS. Windows XP for example no longer uses DOS. Another problem with WinXP is that you must have at least 128MB of memory and you should really have over a 300MHz chip and you need 1.5gigs to load it.

For an "older" computer circa 1997-2000, WinMe is about as good as its going to get for an OS. So unless you want to spring for one of the new computers that now come with Pentium 4 chips that run over 2gig MHz, 60 gig hard drive, 256MB of Memory and with WinXP already loaded in my humble opinion upgrading to WinMe would be benificial.

Ironically, and a tribute to haw fast we are moving, you can now buy a new computer with all of these "modern" components for less than $1000.00 which is less than many of us paid for the 1997-2000 computers but if your "old" computer works fine for your needs upgrading to WinMe will improve your operating options and allow you to restore the system if you have some sort of corruption crash.

Good Luck, Monk

 

I have to agree with monk, Me is a fine OS, with all tweaks that are avaiable out on the web it can be made into a rock solid system, configuring it is everything. Having enough ram and processer helps as well. I keep 98 SE on 2 of my systems for games. So IMHO go ahead and use it.

 

Lets do some THINKING here.

If one has a good working 98SE then putting in ME at this late date is a WASTE of time.

Support for it is getting just as short as for 98 & 98SE.

And hardware and software venders are dropping it as fast ( if not faster ) than Microsoft.

BillyBob

 

I fully agree that going to ME from 98 is a waste, and not just of time.

Re. "System Restore ": I have had a much better version already on 98.

- Partition so you have DATA (Incl. MAIL!) in one place and OPERATING SYSTEM AND APPS in another, and make sure you have yet another large spare partition. If you're wise, add partitions for fleeting, floating junk (temp and temporary internet files)

- Install all your apps, tweaks and updates.

- Either install any Linux or boot with a modern installess CD like Knoppix. Mount both the System and Spare partiton read write (yes, you have to read a few manual pages....)

- Copy the content of whole system and apps partition on the spare.

Now you can do any sort of crime against the system, and you'll still be able to restore it from the spare.

I do so on all my Win9X machines. A full "reinstall" takes 30 min. at most.

Compare that to System Restore: my typical experience is finding 2.6 GB of dross in _RESTORE, and when the s. hits the fan, the critter will say "Sorry, I have no restore points ". This happened to me thrice, + I read of such instances too many times to count, even in this BBS.

If you are lucky, as you may well be, I would not say it's a feature of the Windows Millennium Edition operating system - it's a feature of your heavenblessed soul!


My WinME is quite solid, yes!
And it cost me many hours of work to make it so.

I do NOT rely on:
- System Restore (-> I use some kind of Linux)
- The original scheduler (-> I use WinCron instead)
- Internet Explorer (-> Mozilla, Opera), cept for Windows Update
- The crappy original memory namagement (now supported by leak-preventing RamBooster).
- Autoupdate.
- Notepad (-> Metapad)
- the clunky original image viewer (-> IrfanView)
- the DOS shell (-> I have added a number of Unix CLI utilities right into C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ )
- the start-shutdown command (-> I used a dedicated forced-shutdown application, because WinME could not even get itself to shut down properly until I eradicated much if the "funkshonality customers ask for" - according to Mr. Gates, that is).

I am now toying with the notion of dumping explorer.exe as the main shell in favor of LiteStep, but I am not sure there will be a further improvement in stability.

I can't even remember the name of some original bits of Windows anymore! What is left then? The Windows(tm) logo?
No thanks go to Microsoft for this. I should have bought either Win98 or 2K.

 

You may well be correct. BUT I have read in several places and talked with a few Techs and they do not even want to hear anything about Windows ME. And I saw a report some where that even Microsoft did not realy want to deal with ME.

So if I put togtether what I read and hear and my short experience with ME it makes ME not the better OS.

As to System Restore. that NEVER worked in ME for me ( the seven days I had it installed ) and half of the time it does not work in XP Pro either.

I myself ( in XP ) do not use Ghost, BUT I DO MANUALLY CHECK to make sure there is a Restore Point made before I go messing around. I looked yesterday before I installed new printer drivers and there had been NO RESTORE POINTS made for four ( 4 ) days.

Well I will be darned. I just looked and XP did not even make a restore point on its own when I installed the printer drivers.

I have installed other things and a restore point was not made.

But IT DOES MAKE one when I install Windows Updates or any Microsoft software. HHHMMMM !!!!! I think that says System Restore needs to be watched carefully.

Some of the problems windows ( any version ) is that users TAKE FOR GRANTED that it is going to do everything that it is SUPPOSSED to but may not. And do not check to see whether it has or not.

That may be why 98SE seems to be better. It is not loaded with a lot of supposedly automatic garbagge that does not work. At least in 98SE it made the reg backup every day if the PC was started/restarted at least once. ( if the user did not stop Scanregistry from loading )

That is more than I can say for ME or XP.

BillyBob