Windows Me

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Windows 2000.

Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
Version of the
Closed source
Released to
manufacturing		June 19, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-06-19)
General
availability		September 14, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-09-14)[1]
Final release4.90.3000 / September 14, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-09-14)[2]
Marketing targetConsumer
PlatformsIA-32
Kernel typeMonolithic kernel
LicenseProprietary software
Preceded byWindows 98 (1998)
Succeeded byWindows XP (2001)[3]
Official websiteMicrosoft Windows Me – Home at the Wayback Machine (archived September 2, 2000)
Support status
Mainstream support ended on December 31, 2003
Extended support ended on July 11, 2006[4]

Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), often capitalized as Windows ME,[5] is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was officially codenamed as Millennium. It is the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and then to retail on September 14, 2000. Windows Me is the last version of Windows 9x. It was Microsoft's main operating system for home users until the introduction of its successor Windows XP on October 25, 2001.[6]

Windows Me was targeted specifically at home PC users, and included

real-mode DOS was restricted to decrease system boot time.[8]

Windows Me initially received a generally positive reception when it was released, however it soon garnered a very negative reception from many users due to stability problems. Windows Me became infamously known by many as one of the worst versions of Windows ever released.[9][10][11] In October 2001, Windows XP was released to the public, having already been under development at the time of Windows Me's release,[11] and incorporated most, but not all, of the content of Windows Me, while being far more stable because of it being based on the Windows NT kernel.

After the release of Windows XP in 2001, mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003, followed by extended support on July 11, 2006.[12]

Development history

At the 1998 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates stated that Windows 98 would be the last iteration of Windows to use the Windows 9x kernel, with the intention for the next consumer-focused version to be based on the Windows NT kernel, unifying the two branches of Windows. However, it soon became apparent that the development work involved was too great to meet the aim of releasing before the end of 2000, particularly given the ongoing parallel work on the eventually-canceled Neptune project. The Consumer Windows development team was therefore re-tasked with improving Windows 98 while porting some of the look-and-feel from Windows 2000. Microsoft President Steve Ballmer publicly announced these changes at the next Windows HEIC in 1999.[13]

On July 23, 1999, the first

alpha version of Windows Me was released to testers. Known as Development Preview 1, it was very similar to Windows 98 SE, with the only major change being a very early iteration of the new Help and Support feature that would appear in the final version. Three more Development Previews were released over the subsequent two months.[13]

The first

beta version was released to testers and the industry press on September 24, 1999, with the second coming on November 24 that year. Beta 2 showed the first real changes from Windows 98, including importing much of the look-and-feel from Windows 2000, and the removal of real-mode DOS. Industry expert Paul Thurrott reviewed Beta 2 upon release and spoke positively of it in a review.[14]
By early 2000, Windows Me was reportedly behind schedule, and an interim build containing the new automatic update feature was released to allay concerns about a delayed-release.

In February 2000, Paul Thurrott revealed that Microsoft had planned to exclude Windows Me, as well as new releases of

software developers to move to Windows 2000.[15] Three days later, following a write-in and call-in campaign by hundreds of readers, Microsoft announced that Windows Me (including development versions) would ship to MSDN subscribers after all. Microsoft also apologized personally to Thurrott, claiming he received misinformation, though in a follow-up article he stated that it was "clear that the decision [...] actually changed".[16]

Beta 3 was released on April 11, 2000, and this version marked the first appearance of its final startup and shutdown sounds derived from Windows 2000, as the previous betas used Windows 98's startup and shutdown sounds.[17]

Release

Although Microsoft signed off on the final build of Windows Me on June 28, 2000, after trialing three Release Candidate builds with testers, the final retail release was pushed back to September 14 for reasons that were not clear.[13]

Shortly after Windows Me was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000,[18] Microsoft launched a marketing campaign to promote it in the U.S., which they dubbed the Meet Me Tour. A national partnered promotional program featured the new OS, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multimedia attraction in 25 cities.[19]

Windows Me was released for retail sale on September 14, 2000.[7] At launch time, Microsoft announced a time-limited promotion from September 2000 to January 2001 which entitled Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE users to upgrade to Windows Me for $59.95 instead of the regular retail upgrade price of $109. Non-upgrade versions cost $209, the same as Windows 98 on its release.[20] In October 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, which also included the ZIP folders, the Spider Solitaire game and Internet Explorer 6 by default, all while being based on the Windows NT kernel, which on XP was an evolution of the one in Windows 2000.

New and updated features

User interface

Windows Me featured the

16-bit high color
icons. The Multimedia control panel was also updated from Windows 98. 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

Digital media

  • Windows Movie Maker: This utility is based on DirectShow and Windows Media technologies to provide Microsoft Windows computer systems with basic video capture and edit capabilities. It provides users with the ability to capture, edit, and re-encode media content into the Windows Media format, a tightly compressed format that requires a minimal amount of storage space on the computer's hard disk when compared to many other media formats.[31]
  • Windows Media Player 7: The new version of the Windows multimedia player software introduces jukebox functionality featuring the Media Library, support for CD burning, an integrated media encoder, and the ability to transfer music directly to portable devices. Another new feature is its radio tuner that can be used to search for and connect to radio stations over the internet. Users can also customize the look and feel of the user interface through interactive skins.[32] Windows Me can be upgraded to Windows Media Player 9 Series, which was later included in Windows XP SP2.
  • Windows DVD Player: The software DVD player in Windows Me is a redesigned version of the one featured in Windows 98 which, unlike its predecessor, does not require a dedicated decoder card for DVD playback. Instead, it supports software decoding through a third-party decoder.[33]

Networking technologies

  • Net Crawler: Windows Me introduced a net crawling feature[34] which automatically searches out and creates shortcuts to network shares and printers in My Network Places. This can be controlled using the Automatically search for network folders and printers option. Shortcuts that are added by the net crawler but not detected again on the network in a reasonable time period are aged out and deleted.
  • New
    TCP/IP Stack: Windows Me includes the Windows 2000 networking stack and architecture.[35]
  • The Home Networking Wizard is designed to help users to set up a computer that is running Windows Me for use on a small home network. This includes setting up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on a computer running Windows Me so the computer can share a connection to the Internet with other computers on the home network.
  • Dial-up
    Networking component was updated in Windows Me and provides several enhancements while maintaining the desired features of prior releases of the operating system. The user interface had been reworked to provide all configurable parameters in one convenient location. The user interface now included three new tabs: Networking, Security and Dialing. To improve dial-up networking, Windows Me includes built-in support for the Connection Manager dial-up client. Using the Connection Manager Administration Kit (an optional networking component in Windows 2000 Server), network administrators can pre-configure and deploy dial-up networking connections, by means of a Connection Manager service profile, to Windows Me–based client machines.
  • Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) version 5.0 for Windows Me was enhanced to provide programming interface parity with NDIS version 5.0 in Windows 2000. This means that the programming interfaces that the author of a network device driver uses are the same for both of these Windows platforms.
  • Windows 98 SE by installing the Windows XP Network Setup Wizard.[36]

System utilities

Accessibility features

  • On-Screen Keyboard: Originally introduced with Windows 2000, On-Screen Keyboard makes it possible to input characters using the mouse instead of the keyboard.
  • The Mouse Control Panel incorporates IntelliPoint features, namely ClickLock (selecting or dragging without continuously holding down the mouse button), hiding the pointer while typing, and showing it by pressing Ctrl.
  • The cursor (system caret) can be set to a thicker width.
  • Increased
    Calculator and Magnifier
    .

Removed features

Real mode DOS

Windows Me restricted support for

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.[8][21]

In Windows Me, the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are used only to set global environment variables. The two files (if present) are scanned for settings relating to the environment variables, and any other commands present are moved into a Windows registry key (see below). 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 (VDM).

To specify or edit other startup values (which, in Windows 98, would be present in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file) the user must edit the following Windows registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Environment

For troubleshooting and crash recovery, both the Windows Me CD-ROM and the Windows Me startup disk (a user-creatable floppy disk, known as the Emergency Boot Disk (EBD)) allowed booting into real mode MS-DOS.

It is possible to restore real mode DOS functionality through various unofficial means.[40][41] Additionally, a registry setting exists that re-enables the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" option in the shutdown dialog box; however, unless patched unofficially with third-party software, Windows Me cannot be booted to MS-DOS real mode.[42]

Other components

Unlike previous 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,[43] Active Directory client services,[44] System Policy Editor,[45] Personal Web Server and ASP. These features were supported on its predecessors, Windows 98 and Windows 95.[46] 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

Windows Explorer commands were also modified in Windows Me, matching the menu structure in Windows 2000. While some were simply moved to a different location, certain functionality of the Go menu, as well as the Find command on the Tools menu, are no longer available. For the latter change Microsoft recommends using a variety of similar functionality labeled Search.[49]

Windows Me, like Windows 98 Second Edition, did not ship with the WinG API or RealPlayer 4.0, unlike the original release of Windows 98, due to both of these having been superseded by DirectX and Windows Media Player, respectively.

Upgradeability

Windows Me could have its components upgraded or have new components installed up to the latest versions:

System requirements

System requirements for running Windows Me[52]
Minimum Recommended
x86
CPU
MHz
Memory 32 MB64 MB
Free space 320 MB2 GB
Media
  • 3.5" inch floppy drive
Display
SVGA
  • Video capture device for Windows Movie Maker
    • Sound hardware
    • Sound card
    • Speakers or headphones
    		Microphone for Windows Movie Maker
    Network None56.6
    Kbps
    modem or faster with current Internet connection
    Input device(s)
    Mouse
    or compatible pointing device

    The /nm setup switch can be used at the DOS command line to bypass the minimum system requirement checks, allowing for installation on a CPU as low as the 16 MHz

    80486SX
    .

    Limitations

    Windows Me is only designed to handle up to 512 MB of RAM without changes.[53] 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.[53][54] The maximum amount of memory the operating system is designed to use is up to 1 GB of RAM. Systems with more than 1.5 GB of RAM may continuously reboot during startup.[55]

    Support lifecycle

    Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year. Windows 2000 and Windows Me were eventually succeeded by newer Microsoft operating systems: Windows Me by Windows XP Home Edition, and Windows 2000 Professional by Windows XP Professional. Windows XP is noteworthy that the first preview build of Windows XP (then codenamed "Whistler") was released to developers on July 13, 2000, two months before Windows Me's general availability date.[56]

    Microsoft originally planned to end support for Windows Me on December 31, 2004.[57] However, in order to give customers more time to migrate to newer Windows versions, particularly in developing or emerging markets, Microsoft decided to extend support until July 11, 2006.[58] Microsoft ended support for Windows Me (and Windows 98) on this date because the company considered the operating system to be obsolete and prone to security risks, and recommended customers to upgrade to a newer version of Windows such as Windows XP for the latest security improvements.[59]

    Retail availability for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003.[60] The operating system is no longer available from Microsoft in any form (through MSDN or otherwise) due to the terms of Java-related settlements Microsoft made with Sun Microsystems.[61]

    The Windows Update website continued to be available after Windows Me's end of support date, however, during 2011, Microsoft retired the Windows Update v4 website and removed the updates for Windows Me from its servers.[62][63]

    Support for Office XP on Windows Me ended on July 12, 2011, ending support for all versions of Office on Windows Me.

    Microsoft announced in July 2019 that the Microsoft Internet Games services on Windows Me (and XP) would end on July 31, 2019.[64]

    Reception

    Windows Me initially received generally positive reviews, with reviewers citing the operating system's integrity protection (branded as "PC Health") and the new System Restore feature as steps forward for home users.[65][66] Despite this, however, users' real-world experience did not bear this out, with industry publications receiving myriad reports of problems with the "PC Health" systems, PCs refusing to shut down cleanly, and general stability problems.[67][11]

    As time went on, the reception became even more negative, to the point where it was heavily panned by users, mainly due to stability and bug problems. Because of this, many people viewed Windows Me as one of the worst operating systems of all time, both in critical and retrospect, being unfavorably compared to its immediate predecessor and successor.

    better source needed
    ]

    System Restore suffered from a bug in the date-stamping functionality that could cause System Restore to incorrectly date-stamp snapshots that were taken after September 8, 2001. 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.[69]

    In contrast to the heavy criticisms surrounding Windows Me, Byron Hinson and Julien Jay, writing for ActiveWin, took an appreciative look on the operating system. On the removal of real mode DOS support, they had noted "The removal of DOS has clearly made a difference in Windows Me in terms of stability (far less Blue screen of death are seen now) and booting speed has greatly increased."[70] 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."[71] The new features that Windows Me introduced were also praised and have since remained part of subsequent Windows versions.[72]

    Along with Windows 2000 from the Windows NT family, Windows Me was the last version of Windows that lacked product activation.[73][74]

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    External links

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Windows_Me&oldid=1216921788"