WindowsME -- The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly!
Written: Jan 06 '01 (Updated Jan 28 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Relatively stable
Cons: Poor memory management, No native DOS mode
The Bottom Line: Do NOT bother with ME. There are no benefits to upgrading. Those wanting to edit digital videos should look to software solutions such as MGI VideoWave or Adobe Premier
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| gym-378's Full Review: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Media Only) ... |
Having used ME for a month now, it's time for me to throw in my $.02 about Microsoft's newest addition to the 9x kernel. This review is going to point out quite a few of the flaws in the OS, but keep in mind that I am still relatively pleased with ME.
The Good
Since ME is just a continuation of the Windows 98 series, it probably would have been better to call it Windows 98 Third Edition. There are not many improvements over 98's Second Edition other than the addition of the Windows Movie Maker and some additional System Tools.
With respect to the System Tools, I was glad to see that Microsoft added a "System Restore" tool that lets you capture the state of your computer at a point in time (most likely when it's functioning) and then revert to that state if something goes wrong. The only problem is that MS left out a key component, which I will cover a little later.
The only other big positive is ME's stability -- and even that only comes after an upgrade. The version of IE that ships with ME is terrible unstable, but the entire operating system functions well after the IE Critical Update Patch is downloaded and installed from Microsoft's site.
The Bad
What I consider to be bad about ME is the fact that it's initial multimedia capabilities are rotten. I have a PIII - 450 with 128mb of memory, a UDMA66 hard drive, a Turtle Beach Montego Sound Card, and a ATI Rage Fury video card so my multimedia should perform well. However, with the drivers installed by ME on the initial installation, every time I would play an MP3 song using WinAmp the song would skip or halt altogether when I tried to open any program. Once the program loaded, the song would resume. In addition, every time a .wav file played, my computer just about shut down waiting for the sound.
The remedy?? Go to ATI and Turtle Beach and get the updated drivers specifically for ME. Okay...how can I blame the performance of third party drivers on Microsoft?? Because I was never told that the drivers were not functioning correctly. When Windows 95 used to install a vga driver that it couldn't support, you would get a message reminding you that the driver was unsupported until you loaded the correct driver. I think this would have been much more helpful, rather than making it appear as though everything was functioning properly and then performing poorly.
BTW, downloading the updated drivers did solve the problems.
The Ugly
Once again...the worst part of Windows ME is its memory management. Windows has a nasty habit of making messes and not cleaning up after itself. As with previous versions, the swap file (hard drive space used my Windows to make your system run) just continues to bloat until your systems becomes so unusable that you have to restart or you get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and yes....contrary to popular opinion the nasty BSODs still exist in ME. Trust me, I've seen quite a few of them.
The solution to the memory management problem is to download RamBooster from http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster and let it run in the background. Essentially, this free program follows Windows around and cleans up the messes it makes and frees up valuable memory.
The next ugly problem with ME is the fact that Microsoft apparently didn't realize that most people would be using the System Restore tool while in Safe Mode. Okay...here's the scenario. Your computer is freaking out and it will only boot into Safe mode because their is a problem with the registry or a driver is not loading correctly. To solve the problem, you boot into Safe Mode and decided to use the System Restore Tool to set your computer back to a point when it was working correctly. FORGET IT!! System Restore isn't available in Safe Mode. What???? What were you thinking Microsoft???
The last, and in my opinion, the worst oversight in ME is one that is just short of unforgivable on Microsoft's part. They removed DOS mode from the bootup. No longer can you press F8 and boot to "Command Prompt Only". This rules out a lot of troubleshooting that used to be able to be done from the Command Prompt. Shame on you Microsoft...Windows isn't that good yet. Sure, you can get to the command prompt from within Windows, but what it you can't get into Windows?? Now we're back to using those terrible startup disks.
Should You Upgrade From 98SE??
No. If you happen to buy a new machine with ME on it, I'd keep it. But I wouldn't run out an buy the upgrade and go through the hassle of installing ME. The features that have been added in ME are certainly not worth the time, effort, and money it takes to upgrade.
If, however, you just can't keep your money in your pocket and you have to get the newest and "greatest", buy the full version on ME -- NOT THE UPGRADE! Wipe your hard drive and start from scratch. Upgrading from 98 is a terrible ordeal, where starting from scratch was a relatively painless process.
Overall
Well, there you go. My $.02 on ME...take it for what it's worth. Believe it or not, overall I am still impressed with the OS. Building off the Windows98SE kernel was the smartest step MS could have taken. Since I have hardware that won't run off the NT Kernel (Firewire cards, etc...) I'll have to muddle on through until Microsoft finally decides to combine the stability of Windows 2000 with the hardware support of 9x. Until then, I'll just keep downloading the patches.
So...how do I rate it?? I guess I have to give it a two. Why?? Because it's not really worth the upgrade and the additional features could have just been added in a Service Pack or a patch or added as free features downloadable from Microsoft's site.
**********UPDATE Jan 27, 2001***********
I am dropping my rating from a 2 to a 1 after my experiences with terrible memory leaks in the operating system. Under Windows ME, if I left my computer on overnight with no processes running except Explorer and SysTray, when I get up in the morning, my System Resources are around 61% from 84% the night before.
I suspect this has something to do with the fact that Windows ME does not properly support the nVidia Riva TNT video card, one of the most popular gaming cards out there. If you install the ME drivers from nVidia, you will begin getting BSODs every time you shut down the computer. Remove the driver and use a standard Windows driver and the problem goes away. Unfortunately, none of the earlier drivers seem to solve the problem either.
YUCK! Do NOT upgrade to ME. Stick with 98SE or move up to Windows 2000 Professional.
Recommended:
No
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gym-378
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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