Windows Me

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Categories: Microsoft Windows | Discontinued Microsoft software

Windows Millennium Edition (originally codenamed Millennium), also known as Windows Me, is a 32-bit graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft.

A successor to Windows 95 and Windows 98, Windows Me was mainly comprised of relatively small upgrades such as Internet Explorer 5.5. It also bundled Windows Media Player 7, which was meant to rival the then-dominant media player Real Player, and included the new Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy for home users. Both Internet Explorer 5.5 and Windows Media Player 7 could also be downloaded for free from the Internet for earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft also updated the GUI in Windows Me with features that were first introduced in Windows 2000.

One of the most publicized changes in Windows Me was that it no longer included real mode MS-DOS. This suggested that, unlike Windows 95 and 98, it did not load DOS before loading a Windows graphic shell. However, the changes to Windows Me were minor, with access to real mode DOS simply restricted, so some applications (such as older disk utilities) that required real mode would not run in Windows Me. However, a number of hacks exist that restore support for real mode DOS. [1] [2]

New features

System Restore

Windows Me introduced the "System Restore" logging and reversion system, which was meant to simplify troubleshooting and solving problems. It was intended to work as a "safety net" so that if the installation of an application or a driver adversely affected the system, the user could undo the install and return the system to a previously-working state. It did this by monitoring changes to Windows system files and the registry (System Restore was not a backup program). System Restore could slow the computer's performance if it chose to checkpoint the system while a user was using it, and since its method of keeping track of changes was fairly simplistic, it could sometimes end up restoring a virus which the user had previously removed.

Windows File Protection

Windows File Protection was another new feature introduced with Windows Me, aimed to protect system files from modification and corruption silently and automatically. When the file protection was in effect, replacing a system file that had no file lock or user rights preventing it to be overwritten, caused Windows to immediately and silently restore the original copy. The original would then be taken from a hard drive backup folder or from the Windows Me installation CD if none were found on the default locations searched by Windows. If no such CD would be in the drive, a dialog box would alert the user about the problem and request that CD to be inserted. The same procedures took place if a system file would be deleted instead of replaced.

Note that WFP is an entirely different technology from System Restore although it may not seem so at first sight. The difference is that the System Restore is more broadly restoring operating system files with a customizable hard drive space to reserve for system restore points, and also an operation initiated explicity by the user, while WFP is normally running at all times in the background, and narrowed down to only protect system files.

Windows File Protection used MDAC 2.5.

Universal Plug and Play

Windows Me was Microsoft's first operating system to introduce support for Universal Plug and Play, often shortened to UPnP.

Windows Image Acquisition

Windows Me also introduced the Windows Image Acquisition API for a standardized and officially supported method of allowing Windows applications to transparently and more easily communicate with image acquisition devices, such as digital cameras and scanners. Before Windows Me and the introduction of WIA, non-standard third party solutions were often common here, leading to incompatibility problems.

Criticism

Some users were generally unimpressed with Windows Me, due to perceived stability issues. These issues generally came from using incompatible drivers, usually Windows 95 and 98 based drivers untested in Windows Me. In many instances separate ME compatible drivers were required as well as updates to mainboard BIOSes for proper compatibility. Microsoft's removal of legacy ISA support led to further confusion when older ISA based modems, soundcards and network cards failed to work. Proponents of Windows Me state that, using properly tested/certified drivers/hardware and BIOS updates (if necessary), Windows Me could be as stable as, if not more than, Windows 98SE.

Most of the functionality provided in Windows Me was achievable with separate programs for Windows 98.

Such was the perceived failure of Windows Me that it was sarcastically referred to as "Mistake Edition".

Relation to other Windows releases

At the time of its release, several third-party applications written for Microsoft Windows, especially older games, ran under Windows Me but not under Windows 2000, which is not based on DOS. This fact has become less relevant with the precipitous decline in popularity of Me after the release of Windows XP, which features a Compatibility Mode to allow such programs to run, although sometimes failing.

Windows Me was succeeded by Windows XP, Microsoft's desktop operating system based on the Windows NT kernel (on which Windows 2000 was also based). Windows Me will be supported until June 30, 2006. Support for Windows 98 will also end on that date.

External links

• Official page
• GUIdebook: Windows Me Gallery - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces

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