To ME or not to ME ......... (Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition)

Member Name: Lady_Muck

Product:	Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Date:	24/08/02 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Driver Database, Compatible with all MS software, More attractive interface

Disadvantages: Frequently Crashes, Unstable, even when operating properly, All round poor perfomer

When I last replaced my old Windows 98 machine (Windows being about the only aspect of the Patriot Book PC that I was satisfied with), I found an 'all new, singing and dancing' operating system waiting for me. So in I went with a good level of enthusiasm.

It took me about an hour to realise that not only was the 'new and improved' Windows ME simply a graphically tweaked version of 98SE (admittedly with a few added extras and an awesome driver database), but that it seemed to have been a highly rushed and flawed piece of software ('piece of software' was not my first choice of words, but it will suffice on a family site).

The list of errors and problems I have had from my copy is almost endless (everything from simple resource issues to corrupt DLL files on the installation CD), added to the other distinct problems I have been told about, gives me the impression that Microsoft needed to release an operating system to cash in on the millenium (I assume this was originally supposed to be Windows 2000, which was not ready in time), and so they released a rehashed version of 98 without the stability that they had achieved through the previous 2 years.

At the time of its release, ME was poor in my opinion, and with the eventual release of 2000 and XP, it now looks even worse (I was recently able to afford a copy of Win 2000, overpriced as with all MS software, but the difference is incredible to see).

Don't get me wrong, some people I know have run it since day 1 without a single problem, but they are in a minority to the people who would not touch it with the proverbial '10 foot barge pole'

Summary: