Windows Me


Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me, is a graphical operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. It is the successor to Windows 98 Second Edition, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, with general availability on September 14, 2000.
Windows Me was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series which was targeted specifically at home PC users, and included Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 7, and the new Windows Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy to use for home users. Microsoft also incorporated features first introduced in Windows 2000, which had been released as a business-oriented operating system seven months earlier, into the graphical user interface, shell, and Windows Explorer. Windows Me was a continuation of the Windows 9x model and still DOS-based like its predecessors, albeit with restricted access to real mode MS-DOS in order to decrease system boot time.
Windows Me was heavily panned by many users and critics, mainly due to speed and stability issues, along with hardware compatibility issues and its removal of [|real mode DOS] support. Windows Me is considered one of the worst operating systems of all time. Consequently, most home users remained with Windows 98, while some moved to Windows 2000 despite the latter being enterprise-oriented. In October 2001, Windows XP was released to the public, and became the successor of Windows Me, popularizing most of its features and introducing more visual themes, while being based upon the more stable Windows NT kernel. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006.

Development

In 1998, Microsoft stated that there would be no version of Windows 9x after Windows 98. In May 1999, however, Microsoft released Windows 98 Second Edition, and then announced a new version of Windows 9x which was later revealed to be codenamed Millennium. Derived from the enterprise-oriented Windows 2000, Microsoft originally planned for Windows Neptune to be the first consumer version of Windows based on the NT kernel, though Neptune's release was postponed in favor of finalizing project Millennium, which was released as Windows Me. Much of the work in developing Neptune was incorporated into Microsoft's next consumer release, the first NT-based one, Windows XP.
At least three beta versions of Windows Me were available during its development phase. On September 24, 1999, Microsoft announced that Windows Millennium Beta 1 was released. Windows Millennium Beta 2 was released on November 24, 1999 and added a couple of new features such as System File Protection and Game Options Control Panel. Several interim builds were released between Beta 1 and 2, and added features such as automatic updates and personalized menus. Beta 3 was released on April 11, 2000, and this version marked the first appearance of its final version startup and shutdown sounds, as the previous betas used Windows 98's startup and shutdown sounds. The final version boot screen was first featured in Pre-Beta 3 build 2470. The general availability date of Windows Millennium Edition was September 14, 2000. At launch time, Microsoft announced a time-limited promotion from September 2000 to January 2001 which entitled Windows 95 or Windows 98 users to upgrade to Windows Me for $59.95 instead of the regular retail upgrade price of $109.
Shortly after Windows Me was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, Microsoft launched a campaign-initiative to promote Windows Me in the U.S., which they dubbed the Meet Me Tour. A national partnered promotional program featured Windows Me, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multimedia attraction in 25 cities across the U.S. It was launched on September 14, 2000.
Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year. Windows Me, along with Windows 2000, was eventually succeeded by the NT-based Windows XP, which was launched on August 24, 2001.

New and updated features

User interface

Windows Me featured the shell enhancements inherited from Windows 2000 such as personalized menus, customizable Windows Explorer toolbars, auto-complete in Windows Explorer address bar and Run box, Windows 2000 advanced file type association features, displaying comments in shortcuts as tooltips, extensible columns in Details view, icon overlays, integrated search pane in Windows Explorer, sort by name function for menus, Places bar in common dialogs for Open and Save, cascading Start menu special folders, some Plus! 95 and Plus! 98 themes, and updated graphics. The notification area in Windows Me and later supported 16-bit high color icons. The Multimedia control panel was also updated from Windows 98 SE. Taskbar and Start Menu options allowed disabling of the drag and drop feature and could prevent moving or resizing the taskbar, which was easier for new users.

Hardware support improvements

Real mode DOS

Windows Me restricted support for real mode MS-DOS. As a result, IO.SYS in Windows Me disregards CONFIG.SYS, COMMAND.COM and WIN.COM and directly executes VMM32.VXD. In its default configuration the system would neither boot into an MS-DOS command prompt nor exit to DOS from Windows; real mode drivers such as ANSI.SYS could not be loaded and older applications that require real mode could not be run. Microsoft argued that the change improved the speed and reliability of the boot process.
In Windows Me, the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are used only to set global environment variables. The two files are scanned for settings relating to the environment variables, and any other commands present are moved into a Windows registry key. The two files thus contain only settings and preferences which configure the "global environment" for the computer during the boot phase or when starting a new virtual DOS machine.
To specify or edit other startup values the user must edit the following Windows registry key:
For troubleshooting and crash recovery, both the Windows Me CD-ROM and the Windows Me startup disk allowed booting into real mode MS-DOS.
It is possible to restore real mode DOS functionality through various unofficial means. Additionally, a registry setting exists that re-enables the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" option in the shutdown dialog box.

Other components

Unlike past versions of Windows 9x, Windows Me was entirely aimed at home users, and thus had certain enterprise-oriented features removed. Several features of its predecessors did not work or were officially unsupported by Microsoft on Windows Me, including Automated Installation, Active Directory client services, System Policy Editor, Personal Web Server and ASP. These features were supported on its predecessors, Windows 98 and Windows 95. A Resource Kit publication, targeted towards system administrators, was never published for Windows Me.
Other features that were removed or never updated to work with Windows Me included Microsoft Fax, QuickView and DriveSpace, as well as the GUI FAT32 conversion tool. Several Windows Explorer commands were also removed in Windows Me.

Reception

Windows Me was heavily panned by many users and critics, mainly due to stability issues. Due to its many bugs and glitches, Windows Me is considered one of the worst operating systems of all time. A PC World article dubbed Windows Me the "Mistake Edition" and placed it 4th in their "Worst Tech Products of All Time" feature in 2006. The article states: "Shortly after Me appeared in late 2000, users reported problems installing it, getting it to run, getting it to work with other hardware or software, and getting it to stop running." Consequently, most home users remained with Windows 98 Second Edition, while some moved to Windows 2000 despite the latter being enterprise-oriented.
System Restore suffered from a bug in the date-stamping functionality that could cause System Restore to date-stamp snapshots that were taken after September 8, 2001 incorrectly. This could prevent System Restore from locating these snapshots and cause the system restore process to fail. Microsoft released an update to fix this problem.
Byron Hinson and Julien Jay, writing for ActiveWin, took an appreciative look on the operating system. On the removal of real mode DOS, they had noted "The removal of DOS has clearly made a difference in Windows Me in terms of stability and booting speed has greatly increased." In a recommendation of the operating system upgrade for users of Windows 95 and 98, they had stated "If Windows Me isn't a revolutionary OS it's clear that Microsoft has focused its efforts to make it more user-friendly, stable and packed full of multimedia options. The result is great and the enhancements added are really worth the wait." The new features that Windows Me introduced were also praised and have since remained part of subsequent Windows generations.
Along with Windows 2000 from the NT family, Windows Me was the last version of Windows that lacked product activation.

Product life cycle

Microsoft planned to stop its support for Windows Me on December 31, 2004. However, in order to give customers more time to migrate to newer Windows versions, particularly in developing or emerging markets, Microsoft decided to maintain support until July 11, 2006. Support for Windows 98 also ended on this date. Microsoft ended support for these products because the company considers them obsolete and running these products can expose users to security risks. Windows Me also contained the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which caused it as well as Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE to be pulled from the Microsoft Developer Network at the end of 2003.
In 2011, Microsoft removed the update website for Windows Me. Microsoft announced in July 2019 that the Microsoft Internet Games services on Windows Me and Windows XP would end on July 31, 2019.

Upgradeability

Windows Me could have its components upgraded or have new components installed up to the following versions:
Windows Me is not designed to handle more than 512 MB of RAM by default. Systems with larger RAM pools may lose stability; however, depending on the hardware and software configuration, it is sometimes possible to manually tweak the installation to continue working with somewhat larger amounts of RAM as well. Systems with 1.5 GB of RAM or more may reboot continuously during startup. The /nm setup switch can be used at the DOS command line to bypass the minimum requirements, allowing for installation on a CPU as low as the 16 MHz 80486SX.

Name capitalization

Both the "Windows Me" and "Windows ME" spellings are used when referring to the operating system, with "Windows Me" being used by Microsoft and PC World.