Windows ME Millennium Edition Written Review With Pics
Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft, 2000
$209 (Full), $109 (Upgrade), $59.95 (Limited discount)
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It has come to my attention there exists a scattered few retro gamers who recommend the use of Microsoft's Windows Millennium edition for their old hardware. I can't imagine they used the operating system when it was new, but I know I sure did. Perhaps when history fades from view we are more able to fairly judge a product for its merits? Go for it, and then do the same for Windows 98. Fact is 99% of what is in Windows ME can be in Windows 98, while the opposite is not so true.
It was that very truth that caused me to defy my father, who had installed Windows ME on my computer, and revert it back to Windows 98. It's a decision I do not regret. Along with a programs features, a recommendation to others must take into account the views of the time, what came before and after, the motivations of those that were behind it, as well as its lasting impact. With this in mind, I really have no problem declaring Windows ME as the single worst Windows operating system that ever existed. Somehow I can't recommend the worst Windows for any retro hardware.
^Beginning the installationHumorously, I credit Windows ME for turning me into a power user. It was the many issues that arose from its use that forced me to start digging online into all kinds of articles on the operating system in an attempt to fix its problems. Foremost for me was Microsoft's decision to rip out access to DOS. I was already into the old games at the time, and it didn't take long at all to realize the things I once did to play those older games would no longer work. Then you dig in, you start reading, you learn that Windows ME, like others before it, was still built upon MS-DOS, yet Microsoft decided for you that you had no business using DOS. Create an emergency boot disk from inside of Windows ME and see where that disk will take you upon loading. Spoiler alert you'll be heading into DOS, just like Windows 95 and 98.
^Is it too late to back out? Notice the promotion screens are the same as Windows 98Don't decide for me what I want to use in my computer. It is an insult to the intelligence of your users to assume they will mess up their computers and should be shielded from all areas besides the desktop. Or perhaps Microsoft just needed something to point to for their false claim that Windows ME was faster than Windows 98, which itself was falsely claimed to be faster than Windows 95. Boot-up time for Windows ME could prove to be slightly faster than Windows98, if you had a load of commands in the autoexec and config files.Those are files that still exist in Windows ME, but you can edit or delete them all day long and they'll just show up exactly how they were upon rebooting.
Alright, so you don't want me to mess with those DOS startup files? I mean it's a shame because now nobody is going to be able to run the Set Sound command to point the Windows DOS shell to your sound card settings, meaning many DOS games that could run inside of Windows will no longer have sound. An option would have been nice, considering my Windows 98 autoexec and config files are quite short and do not add time to booting up Windows, but okay... How about restarting into MS-DOS mode? No? Okay... How about you let me right click on a DOS program and go into its properties so I could then give the individual program its own autoexexc and config files to run in DOS mode just for that single program, like Windows 98 let me do? No on that, too?
Just go into Window's own help system and search for DOS, it'll point you to features that were indeed in previous versions of Windows, but oddly are of little help for this particular version. They didn't even bother to update their help files to tell you to screw off. That tells you all you need to know about this version of Windows. It was lazily put together, with most of the setup screens touting the exact same features Windows 98's setup did, and they couldn't be bothered to update help files for their biggest change. Do we really need to go into the operating systems "features" to know what's coming our way?
^Welcome to Windows ME, I hope you like your desktop, because that's all Microsoft wants you to use"Hey now! That desktop actually looks kind of nice! That's a lot better than Windows 98's default look!" I would agree it looks better than Windows 98, but I also happen to know that it looks the exact same as Windows 2000, the 1999 release for the Windows NT business line of operating systems. I like those icons so much that I quite easily put them into my Windows 98 setup, and so could you. Besides the icons you may be interested to know of the plethora of included wallpaper and desktop themes to choose from, maybe its included desktop games? Sure, but most of those were available in the Windows 98 Plus edition.
Besides the icons, the basics of Windows ME operate in mostly the exact same way as 98 would, now with added "security". Internet Explorer, still illegally built into the operating system as the way to access your files, now defaults to showing you nothing when entering your file menus. Opening up any file menu now shows you a primarily blank screen where the folders once were shown, now with a few lines on the side asking if you instead want to go to your documents, to search for a file, and below that if you actually really want to view the entire contents of your hard drive that you went into this menu in the first place to see. Likewise the control panel only shows you a small list of items that are actually available to you, you've now got to tell Windows you want to see them all.
^I always did like the new media player, it's a good thing it can also be installed on Windows 98Perhaps I've beaten up on the "features" a bit much, truthfully any self respecting power user will quickly do away with the new nag screens and get the file system operating as they see fit. While the majority of "new" features added to Windows ME may have come from other products released prior, there may actually be about a handful of items genuinely new to this version of Windows. Windows Media Player 7 came with ME, you can upgrade it to 9. Besides my search for DOS, my biggest memory of Windows ME is Windows Media Player. It now had a slick design, offering many features like playlists for your music, which played on a memorizing screen of colors going along with the music.You could even access internet radio stations from here, and this very musically inclined individual really appreciated the new Media Player, it's great I was later able to install it onto Windows 98.
That's the recurring theme here, isn't it? If you like a feature of Windows ME, then the chances are great that it'll work just fine on Windows 98. There is now a nice built in program to view your pictures from, where as Windows 98 would have defaulted to opening Internet Explorer to view pictures. While I don't believe the exact Windows ME viewer can be used in Windows 98, there are comparable and free 3rd party solutions. The only truly new feature that could not be given to Windows 98 would be System Restore, it's very first appearance in Windows. Many looks into Windows ME have pointed out that this version of system restore was not exactly perfect, often times restoring the virus you wanted to be rid of.
Reviews of the time and since have noted more instability compared to Windows 98, test computers sometimes blue screening on startup and shut down. I didn't actually run into any stability issues on my limited look. Truthfully, honestly, and heartfelt, in terms of a retro rig that people are probably going to be wanting to play old games on, it handled all the Windows games I threw at it just fine. I tried some newer 9x compatible games, tried some 98 and 95 era games, and even some Windows 3.11 16-bit Windows games, Windows ME performed those duties admirably. DOS games, however, are a nightmare on Windows ME. Back in the day I installed a program to reinsert ME's DOS capabilities, but I often would run into issues with it and eventually it even messed up ME entirely, which was the final factor in my decision to reinstall Windows 98.
But if all you're looking for is to play Windows 3.11 through 98 compatible games for your retro machine, could Windows ME actually be a solid choice of operating system? It seems to run just fine from my experience with that area. Still, Windows ME would have a shelf life of about a year before Windows XP was released, the operating system that would force the Windows consumer DOS line of users into the business users NT line. Windows ME would certainly be a better choice for Windows 95 era games than Windows XP, given that operating systems entirely different makeup, but there is simply no reason to choose ME over the earlier Windows 98. Microsoft themselves would cease supporting Windows ME on the exact same day they stopped Windows 98 support. That's a nice thank you to the people that paid full price for a newer operating system... 3rd party developers treated ME the same way, there was never a single hardware device that shipped with a Windows ME driver, but not a Windows 98 one as well. Many companies didn't bother to even ship with a Windows ME driver, as Windows 98 drivers would often work just fine in what was essentially just an updated version of 98.
It has been named in the top 10 tech disasters of all time, the name ridiculed as Windows "Mistake Edition", and even that you should forget Y2K, because this was "the true Millennium bug". Consumers were told that they should probably just pass this one by, and I believe it to be nothing more than a Microsoft cash grab. The year prior that had publicly stated there would be no more DOS Windows versions, but they couldn't resist a quick buck. It was the first in a now long tradition of creating an operating system many people can't stand, so that they can later buy another operating system that they might like more. Vista has since faced hate, Windows 8, even 10 is getting people upset now and then. But regardless of how machines might have ran on those operating systems, they actually did add things. There was good along with the bad.
Windows ME offers nothing that Windows 98 does not offer you, and in fact takes things away. There's no games that will run only on ME (the last version of Direct X being 9C for ME and 98), and no hardware that only supports ME. There are no factual reasons to ever steer anybody toward Windows ME when you can instead point them to the more capable Windows 98.. I don't care if it runs the games you want to run on it just fine, so will Windows 98, and it'll run more of them. If you're into the look of Windows ME, quite a lot of the newer Windows 98 upgrade patches will have options for that look.
If you happen to be someone wanting to use old hardware to play old games, congratulations you are now among power users. You might not be looking as deep as some, but you're looking deep enough to not be bothered with emulators. You are a power user putting together your own rig. Start acting like it and make Windows 98 the best you can make it. I don't personally use Windows 98 for its DOS mode, as I have DOS 6.22 and Windows 98 on the same computer. I don't really need or use the DOS support Windows 98 gives me and I could have Windows ME while still using DOS 6.22, but why would I ever limit myself of any possibilities or uses I might one day have need of?
There is simply more to a recommendation than features alone, but if it were only features I'd still recommend Windows 98 over Windows Millennium edition. It baffles me how I've recently seen a few people claim otherwise. Sometimes those around at the moment don't get things right, unfairly treating things in a negative light, but sometimes they were dead on. Plenty of reviewers at the time noted the good things about it, and plenty of them could not be bothered to recommend it to anyone because of all that was bad with it. While I found Windows ME to have been stable during my use of it, playing Windows games perfectly fine, there's just not enough new or exclusive elements to the operating system to make it anything special. Without new features, if it had only tightened up the code in a way that made it "truly" faster, that may have been enough to recommend to some. But it's simply lackluster, and why would anyone want to put a lackluster operating system on a retro gaming rig they presumably want to have a lot of fun on? Once my nostalgic look at Windows ME was completed, the videos and pictures had all been taken; I did much the same as I did 18 years ago, bidding farewell to Windows Millennium Edition, setting off to look for my Windows 98 CD.
*My video review for Windows ME
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