Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition [Old Version]

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004W62O
• Item model number: C83-00001
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 13, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,032 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #1 in Software > Operating Systems > Microsoft Windows > Windows Millennium
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

With the cutely named Windows Me (for Millennium Edition), Microsoft raises the bar a bit with a new operating system that you'll certainly want to consider for your next new PC. While this version will probably not be a compelling upgrade for most Windows 95/98 users, the newest member of the Windows operating-system family bundles a number of minor improvements aimed at making computing life easier for home users.

There are several noteworthy features in Windows Me, even if no one feature really stands out. First, we liked that Windows Me boots noticeably faster. The reason is that the underpinnings of DOS have been removed from this new release. One result of this absence is that you can no longer boot to a command window as in Windows 95/98 without special diskettes. (Also, don't expect Windows Me to support older hardware that uses virtual device drivers written in the days of yore.) Of course, you can still run DOS command sessions within Windows Me.

Besides removing legacy support for DOS, Windows Me adds several other improvements to reliability. The most important is that every 10 hours or so, the operating system automatically backs up its system files (just like Windows 2000), thus reducing the chance of your system being corrupted. Windows Me also borrows the TCP/IP stack (the low-level code that connects to the Internet) from Windows 2000, meaning you should have slightly more reliable networking connections. For laptop users, you can also hibernate a session and restore it quickly, another feature borrowed from Windows 2000.

The personality of Windows Me also changed a bit for the better. Principally, you can take advantage of personalized menus, which show the most frequently accessed menu choices on the Start bar and hide the others. (This feature is also based on Windows 2000, but don't worry, you can turn it off.) Internet Explorer 5.5 is bundled here; so is support for working with compressed Zip files, which no longer require an add-on.

Microsoft has been touting the multimedia capabilities of the new Windows Me. There's a built-in video editor for video files, and the operating system makes it easy to connect to today's video cameras, scanners, and digital cameras. But without built-in support for Real Media files, these features probably won't please everybody.

So what's the verdict on Windows Me? Provided you have recent hardware, there are some good reasons to upgrade, but most users will want to stick with their current OS. If you are buying a new system, by all means choose Windows Me instead of Windows 98. Even though it isn't a major release for most users, Windows Me shows that Microsoft has done its homework when it comes to improving the computing experience for consumers. --Rich Dragan

Product Description

Microsoft Windows Me is the new home operating system featuring digital media, an improved user experience, enhanced home networking, and a rich Internet experience. This is Microsoft's first operating system to feature System Restore, which maintains multiple backups of the state of your computer as "restore points", allowing you to "roll back" the configuration of your computer to the exact state it was when the restore point was created. If a problem occurs, System Restore can return your computer to the state it was before the problem happened. Part Number C83-00001.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Windows DE (Disappointing Edition), October 5, 2000

By 

"bezeert" (San Francisco, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition [Old Version] (CD-ROM)

During the installation process for Windows ME (I was upgrading my laptop from 98) I was presented with a myriad of screens telling me how great Windows ME was and how much change was influenced by "customer requests" and issues from their support department.

Ironically, after the install completed and machine rebooted, Windows ME greeted with the infamous "blue screen of death".

After spending a couple of hours using the diagnostic tools packaged with ME and troubleshooting the problem, I was finally able to get my system up and running.

After using ME for a couple days, here are the cold hard facts as I see them. This is a patch to 98, this is not an upgrade. It contains a lot of multimedia extras that are available from Microsoft's download site. The OS performance was not noticeably improved to me in any area. The startup process seemed faster by maybe 5 seconds tops on my 400mhz Pentium.

The price of ME hardly justifies the added functionality that a previous Win98 user gains.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 stars is probably a bit too generous!!!, September 26, 2000

By 

John Besse (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition [Old Version] (CD-ROM)

Ok where to begin with Microsoft's newest P.O.S.? I had the chance to start running Microsoft Windows Me a few months ago, and I jumped at the shot. I was really happy to finally get a new OS on my machine.

Let me begin by letting everyone know what I am running now. I have a custom built machine, by myself. It is a Cerleron 566 overclocked to 850Mhz on an Abit Rev.II motherboard, 128mb RAM, 100 gigs of Hard drive space, Road Runner cable (not so) high speed internet access, Turtle Beach: Santa Cruz soundcard and a Matrox G200 Mystique 8mb video card.

Ok I'll put it this way, Microsoft's Windows ME does not let me use my computer to its best of performance capabilites. Win Me is slow and it looks like a direct rip off of Windows 2000. Well not that, that is a bad thing, Win 2k is at least a stable operating system that is powerful (to say the least).

Windows ME just runs about as fast as a turtle, and it is system resource hungry. I constantly have to restart whenever I do any multitasking. When there are multiple web browsers open, you can kiss half of your resources good bye. I have a lot of .dll (dynamic library link) failures when I multitask and my system just runs terrible. Once most of your memory is used up, if you dont restart... Then your internet speed will cut in half and folders take their time to open. I was also not a big fan with the networking capabilities on WIN ME. It almost looks as if Microsoft took Windows 98 ripped out have of the networking abilities and then threw WIN 2k icons on top of it, therefor creating Windows ME.

To put it nicely, I am really dissapointed with this OS. I was overall impressed with Windows 98 Second Edition and I still prefer it now. But to tell you the truth, I was really excited when I heard Microsoft was releasing WIN ME. I had a lot of high hopes that were really let down. I dont even know what went wrong, but Microsoft really screwed this one up!

I hate WIN Me and I wouldn't recomend it to anyone. But, I will let you know that there are a few good points to it and I can see how others might enjoy it. WIN ME is very easy to navigate and very user friendly. There are a bunch of new options in Windows Media Player, which I'm sure a lot of people will like (although, I dislike Media Player myself). The overall appearence to Millenium is nicer. I really enjoy the look of it, as opposed to the old 98 and 95 series. What do I mean by that? I mean the desktop and menues. It is set up a bit nicer and the new icons look more upbeat. Although they are nothing new, everything came from Windows 2000. Oh yeah, try and restart in MS DOS Mode, you can't... Because it's not there! Microsoft decided to leave DOS out of WIN ME, except for the DOS prompt inside Windows. But overall, there is just nothing in Win Me to keep me running it. It took me a month or so to make my decision to go back to WIN 98 SE on a dual boot with Mandrake Linux 7.1

My recomendations are to either stick with Windows 98 Second Edition or with Windows 2000. If you are looking for a fast OS with stability, it is best to stay away from Win ME. If you have it in ya, learn Linux... Linux is fast, powerful, stable and fun once you get into it. But do your self a favor, stay away from Microsofts newest operating system Windows ME - Millenium Edition, or try it out first to decide for yourself. I didn't care for it in the least bit. I would give it 1 star, but I know it doesn't really deserve that. Hey, at least it runs... Thats about all I could ask from it. But the truth is, WIN ME just plain sucks. There isn't much to it that I like, I would probably never go back to it and most of my friends feel the same way. Actually, just about everyone I have talked to, who hava ran Windows ME disliked it. Read what other people have wrote. Most of them dislike it too! Honestly, I'd stay away!

I hope I gave some of you a bit of information that is useful. I'm not trying to bash Microsoft because they are the industry standard, because I'm not. I just wanted to provide you all with my point of view about the way I feel and my experiences with their new program. I am awaiting the next version of WIN ME (whatever they'll call it). I'd be more than happy to run it too. Plain and simple; I didn't care for WIN ME and I wanted everyone to know where I stand =) Hope that did it for ya! And if you really want to, try it at risk!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the money?, August 17, 2000

By 

D. Wetzel - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition [Old Version] (CD-ROM)

This is yet another version of Windows which barely improves on Windows 95. This is basically an update for all the new devices and hardware that are out there. At the core it still works the same as the last couple Windows. I wouldn't recommend buying this unless you have a brand new computer, otherwise, like in my case, it will just slow down your computer even more. There are some small bonuses to this version though. It does come with some ok games, and improved multimedia capabilities, but most of these you could already download from the microsoft webpage. I have to admit some of the more pestering points to Windows 98 have now been fixed, but I'm sure most users will hardly notice. Many of the changes are just cosmetic, or simplify a certain task.

I have been using this version for about a month now, and sometimes I want to uninstall it, it can really slow things down at times, and it does tend to freeze my computer an aweful lot more than previous versions. All in all, this is good for brand spanking new computers, but for older ones, I would stick with older versions, your system will just run faster.