Forgive me father, because I tried Windows Me...

[Nuno]

(No pun intended to Father Joel )

Now really, I borrowed a copy of WinMe upgrade edition and I did upgrade my win98 install. Yes I did the upgrade, not a fresh install, so you can argue with that.
All went smooth, reeboted, aplied default windows settings (oh look, it looks like win2k).

Ok. It´s only win98 TE. It seems more slick that win98 but not nearly as smoooth as win2k in general windows use.

I decided to do something that allways crashed my win9x instalations: opening IE explorer windows like crazy. Around the 30th one, there you go: Icons going black and IE back and forward buttons turning into numbers. I had no memory left despite having 192 Mb Ram.

So I rebooted and I am back to win2k warm feeling

Not really flaming, I just had to try it to see if all being said about it was true, now I can speak based on an educated opinion.

I still say that win9x is ages behind the NT kernel.

[PurpleHaze]

Well, the only thing keeping me from doing the ME upgrade is this 'lack of dos' thing. I don't know too much as to what the truth is there.

What functionality do you -really lose- when going to ME?

Example, will I never be able to flash my motherboard again? Most flash utils require you to exit to dos. Same with hard drive diagnostics (WDDiag) and this recent utility I used to change one of my Atlas 10k's from scsi-3 to scsi-2.

If I install ME, will I not be able to touch this stuff anymore?


------------------
Ami Y. Koriuchi - foxyviolet@hotmail.com
SYSTEM1
Asus K7V 1005.A - K7 - 900 MHZ - GeForce 2 GTS 64mb
512 MB PC133 - 60 GB UDMA66 7200 RPM

SYSTEM2
Asus P3BF 1003.A - P3-500 - G400Max
256MB 6NS - 75 GB of 10k RPM SCSI UW

Hello... my name is ami. and this is my signature.

[Nuno]

You´re correct Ami. But they only hide DOS. It was a preety stupid thing to do - it´s still win9x kernel, it NEEDS a DOS subsystem to run.

There is a patch floating around the net that enables win98-like DOS functionality in win ME. I don´t have a link right now, but I´m preety sure I read about it a couple of days ago. Do a search and see what pops up.

But if your running Win98/Win 98SE, upgrading to winMe is not worth it. Get the latest Win98 updates, DL Media Player7 (yuck) and IE 5.5, and you´ll have a OS WinMe-like

[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 27 September 2000).]

[Brian R.]

Don't throw away your Win98 boot disk...

[Pace]

WinMe also has other benefits such as improved performance and they've ripped the TCP/IP stack from NT so it must be good (well, in theory ). The UI tweaks are nice and welcome but Whistler will be the big UI change that Windows has been needing for a while (I hope). WMP7 I like as do I like the scanner/digicam support.

Just keep a DOS boot disk nahdy and you'll be fine. If you want, why not keep 98 for the moment then decide later? You can always upgrade too early but never too late. No, that's not right but I think I've got my meaning over.

I think....

CHEESE !

Paul.

------------------
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[Thundrchez]

What about boot up speed? I have heard rumours that winme is supposed to boot up much faster than before? What is it really like?

I try to keep my system pretty slick, lean, and optimized. I'm still on win95, but my bootup times are < 35 seconds once the mobo makes it through POST. And that is with all my hardware configured with the latest drivers. It is amazing how fast it boots up when none of your hardware is configured!

[Nuno]

I don´t notice significant diferences in boot time. But then again, it´s an upgrade, not a fresh install.

The reason because every time a MS OS is reported to boot up much faster than its predecessor is because when you do a fresh install of an OS it´ll boot much faster than the one you had. But give it a couple of days, after you install all your stuff and bloating the registry and you got the same or longer boot time than before.

[mj12]

"Why should I upgrade to ME?"

Well lets see..tons of bug fixes. The Win2k TCP/IP stack ported over so networking is faster and more reliable. New Home Networking Features. etc.

"How will I be able to flash my bios?"

First of all, you shouldn't flash it but booting to dos from within 9x because you don't want any memory managers loaded so that's why you boot from a clean boot disk when flashing the bios. There are a couple options here. Option A. If your mobo company is up to the times like Asus then you can do it from within windows which I do with my Asus K7V inside Win2K all the time. NEVER a problem and it's a hell of alot easier then having to fumble with silly boot disks. Option B. Your mobo manufacturer hasn't stepped into the new millennium, well if you're running WinME then just goto the control panel add-remove programs, make boot disk and there you go. When you boot up off of it there will be a "minimal boot" option. This should serve you fine for your flashing needs.

[Thundrchez]

Logically, "tons of bug fixes" means that the predecessor, win9x, contains tons of bugs.

[Gurm]

Thundrchez,

Was there ever any question about that?

Ami,

Fear not, ME comes with a boot disk. I mean c'mon - when's the last time you did "shut down in MS-DOS mode" anyway?

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Alec]

I don´t believe in Microsoft, although I use their software because it´s the only path to compatibility.
Every OS has bugs. If ME has new features, it has new bugs, believe me. The only OS that you can call reliable is W2K, and still, it´s not perfect.

I tried ME and I was not impressed, as I reverted to W98 + SP1 (which is the only OS that makes APM work flawlessly with my system, apart from W95). For me Windows Millenium Edition is basically W98 with a big service pack with some cosmetic enhancements.

I wish there was more diversity in the OS business, with a more balanced share of users.

[Joel]

I have WinME running on two of my systems at home and I am guite pleased with them. The one thing that I really liked about it is that I have not had to worry about IRQ conflicts like I did with Win98. In my primary unit the G450 and the Sound Blaster Live! both share the same IRQ and I have not had the first bit of trouble because of that. Of course my installation was a clean install like I have done with every OS change I've made.

Father Joel (no pun taken)

[Paddy]

I am about to do a rebuild.
Primary IDE: win98 (games)
Primary SCSI: win2k (er... work)

Is there much to be gained by using ME instead of 98 - I thought it was just IE 5.5 plus Media Player 7...

[spoogenet]

On Boot times:

WinME DOES boot faster with CERTAIN hardware configurations. The only requirement I know of for this is that you can not have any legacy hardware (no ISA, not sure what else). I'm sure there's a few more tricks to it. But one way or the other, if you have a quick boot option in your BIOS, and WinME thinks it can boot quickly, it will boot very quickly.

True, however, that once you load it up with apps that it will boot slower. However a fresh install of ME (given the right hardware) will boot faster than 98SE. Emphasis on given the right hardware.

As far as other changes, MS supposedly did a few things to yank out legacy support in ME. In theory, this is a good idea. One of the things they supposedly did/were going to do (or so I was told) was to get rid of VxD's. By removing legacy support, they can make it run faster. Woohoo, my hair's on fire.

In reality, however, VxD's are still there. Just like DOS is still there, even though they tried to hide it so that it LOOKS like they took out legacy support. However, when you get a BSOD because of a VxD error, it becomes painfully obvious as you hit the RESET button that there ARE VxD's in ME.

That is also with ME certified HW/SW in the system, with fast boot, etc etc etc. So even if you have a "truly" legacy-free system, that even WHQL claims is legacy-free, you still get VxD's. Sweet. Yet another great design from good ole MS.

My personal experience with a number of systems has been that if it runs fine in Win98SE, then stick with it. WinME will probably change that.....for the worse.

b

[Nuno]

There you go, a little winMe review.
It´s on Tom´s Hardware, so flame at will
http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer...927/index.html