Customer Reviews

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition Upgrade w/ Encryption Coded Software [Old Version]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

Windows ME just isn't worth the investment. It is just Windows 98 with some added features. The core operating system is still the same, unreliable OS it always was.

Let's start by looking at the plus side. The new features are pretty nice. Windows Media Player is much better than its predecessors. Internet Explorer 5.5 is a great browser and not having to download the beast is an added bonus. The auto update feature (while somewhat annoying at times) is much easier than searching the web for the latest software updates. If you feel these features are reason enough to upgrade your to ME, then go for it.

As I said, ME still has plenty of reliability problems. It is still possible for a single application to bring down the entire operating system. In my experience it has been rare that I actually get the OS to shut down properly. I have used Linux and NT for years and gotten used to their stability. I had forgotten just how bad the stability of this line of operating systems could be.

One word of caution if you are still thinking about making the purchase: pay attention to the system requirements! I tried installing the upgrade on an old Pentium 133 Mhz system. The requirements say a minimum of 150 Mhz is needed, but I figured the OS would just run slowly so I went ahead with the install. After ME partitioned and formatted my hard drive, it told me my system didn't meet the 150 Mhz requirement and exited the installation.

There you have it, the pluses, minuses and some annecdotes. I don't believe the additional features are worth the investment.

I recently bought a new computer that was preloaded with Windows Millenium and after only a few weeks I looking to scrap Millenium and buy Windows 2000. Millenium is mainly Windows 98 with a prettier cover, but it still has a lot of problems - sudden lock ups (can't kill a stalled application either), jittery audio using Real Player and Quicktime, & overabundant memory hog. I've got 128 MB and I need more. My advice is to keep your current 95 or 98 and if you decide to make a change move to Windows 2000. Microsoft is trying to move that way, but Millenium doesn't take much of a step closer to that than 98 does. Good luck.

Two weeks ago, I carefully installed Windows ME on my computer, replacing the preinstalled Windows 98. That was a mistake. While ME has some nice features and improvements over 98, it left my system more unstable and buggy than it had ever been before. For the record, my computer easily met the system requirements for ME. Anyway, after the upgrade, I found IE 5.5 to be slower than IE 5.01, Media Player 7 was a piece of garbage, my McAfee VirusScan loaded much slower, there were video driver glitches, etc...I had similar hassles years ago when I upgraded another computer from Windows 95 to 98.

After the experiences I have had, I do NOT believe in upgrading your PC's operating system. If your machine came preinstalled with Windows 95, 98, or ME, then leave it alone. Putting in a new OS totally upsets the equation and causes innumerable problems. Many of these problems don't develop right away. Also, upgrading your OS often violates your manufacturers warranty. So if you need tech help, often the maker of your PC will say..."sorry, but we can offer no support since you changed the operating system. Call Microsoft". So a few days ago, I got fed up with the glitches and completely erased my hard drive, and put back in Windows 98. My computer works better than ever.

My PC has a small sticker on the front that I should have paid better attention to: Designed for Microsoft Windows 98/NT. Didn't say anything about ME. If a new OS is released and you simply must have it, wait a few months until patches and bug fixes are released, then buy a new computer that has the new OS preinstalled.

I think for most people this upgrade would not be worth it. However it was for me since I bought this upgrade to enable the USB port on my PC (I bought the PC in '97 and it had the USB ports, but Windows 95 so the USB ports did not do anything). I was able to live without USB until I got a digital camera, and downloading pictures over the serial port just takes too long.

I did a clean install rather than the upgrade procedure (i.e., I reformated the hard wiping Windows 95). Although the clean install takes more time (you have to back up all your data and reinstall all your applications, etc) I think it saves trouble down the road.

I have been using ME for over a month now and it seems to be more stable than 98SE (which I have at work). The system restore is a nice added feature, that I think has some advantages over the GOBACK software you could have bought. Other features are less exciting (IE5.5 MediaPlayer 7 are available for free on web and I don't use the movie editor).

PCs would be so much better if Microsoft never existed. Windows Me crashed my computer before I even finished installing it. I have a 3dfx voodoo3 3000 card and windows me, for some reason hated it. I lost count of how many times I had to restart my computer. The biggest mistake I made was not saving my old system files when I installed it, so now I am stuck with it. Let me tell you that running a computer with Windows ME is like running your car without any oil. It lasts for about two minutes before it does some "The program you are using caused an invalid whatever in your thingamagiger." Save your money.

I bought a new PC back in September having invested a large proportion of my savings into it. When I buy a virtual top of the range machine, I do not expect the following:

- Having to restart every hour or two due to loss of system resources.
- Having to disable System Restore (one of the biggest selling points of ME) to give me some more system resources.
- Not being able to start up with the programs I want running in the backgroud because otherwise my computer will be rendered unuseable until the next restart.
- On a 1.4 Ghz machine with 512MB RAM, having a maximum of 34% system resources free. And that was only with my anti-virus program running from startup.
- Seeing friends with significantly inferior machines running more programs at a time than me, and all running faster. The difference? They were running Windows 98.

I now use Windows XP Professional. I now run twice the amount of software with 90% system resources free. I've seen maybe 2 blue screens of death since using it, as opposed to 5 a day with ME. I like the new GUI in XP, others may not, but you can change back to the Win 9x style if you so wish.

And also, I like my computer to do the jobs I ask it to. Windows Me didn't let me do it. It really makes me very upset that this piece of software is still out there to cause so many problems. Microsoft should be ashamed and offer free upgrades to XP for everyone in the world who is left with ME.

And, as it seems, XP is cheaper. What more can I say?

Yes, my current operating system is Microsoft Windows ME.

I got this O.S. with my new computer, does it have to crash every other second? It's not great, at all. My friend used it for 10 minutes briefly and came to the conclusion I came up with 2 months after living with it.

Positive side (shouldn't take long...)
1. It's got that Windows Movie Maker program, if only I could use it without risk of crashing the machine (in the bin).
2. Media Player's OK
3. System restore was quite handy when i had a few graphics card problems.
4. Internet Explorer 5.5 OK (but you can wazz version 6.0 upgrade off Microsoft for free anyway)
5. All the lovely little icons are nice looking, sitting on the desktop like that...
6. ...mmmm, that's it.

Negative side (here we go...)
1. Freezing, crashing, lockups, incompatibility, sudden program closures (with data loss) and more blue screens than I can throw at keyboard at (biggest gripe).
2. When I used system restore quite a few times to sort a graphics card error I ended fixing the problem and having all my icon labels and program titles on the start menu ALL CAPITALISED...how odd!
4. I've reinstalled it 2 times since having the computer Jan 2001 (it's a pain, I wont go through it again).
5. It doesn't look any better.
6. It doesn't like me capturing video.
7. It doesn't like me.

So it's OK/adequate if your new computer came with it, but horrible as an upgrade.Don't buy Windows MEediocre. (look forward to XP)

I hate windows ME...there I said it. Its like they took windows 2000 and removed some features and made it crash more often. Devil thy name is windows ME

If you are an AOL member and use a 56k modem, your system will lock up literally every other time you try to log on. Then after you do get online your own machine will cut you off (not AOL). I know its not AOL because not only is the connection lost but the AOL window closes also. Microsoft is telling Windows ME users to make a toll call to its tech support line and ask for a file that will fix the problem. It took about 20 minutes to work through the menus and explain the problem and arrange to have an email sent with a link to the patch file on Microsoft's site. Microsoft warns that the patch hasn't been fully tested, which is why its location hasn't been announced to the general public. Good thing. The patch didn't work either.

Before it was released, Windows ME was widely perceived as the home edition of Windows 2000 Professional. As it turned out, it is the latest version of Windows 9x. By no stretch of imagination does it have the stability and the robustness of Windows 2000 Professional. I tried installing Windows ME on a system that had previously run Windows 95, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, three distributions of Linux and FreeBSD flawlessly. I experienced video problems, hard disk crashes and ME getting corrupted repeatedly. I tried reinstalling more than once, both as an upgrade and as clean install after formatting the hard disk to no avail. This operating system is simply not stable. Considering the fact that Windows XP is on the market, I don't expect Microsoft to spend much effort in fixing ME. If you are upgrading from a previous Windows version, bypassing ME is a very prudent decision.