New to ME/considering the upgrade? Read this article first (Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition)

Member Name: CyrixDes

Product:	Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Date:	17/08/00 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: more stable, easier to use, improved features

Disadvantages: is it worth the fee?

Windows ME is basically an extension of the Windows 98 core, a bug fix/service pack thing if you like. I will take you through my experiences of the product to give you an idea as to what its like.
Firstly the setup. You get the customary startup screen although with this one you get a short movie that shows a number of the new features incorporated into ME. A little similar to the dialogue you get when setting up Win 95/98. Once the movie is over you receive a number of choices where you can learn about the new features in ME.
From a visual point of view, ME is largely similar to 98 with just a few subtle changes and new features. In my opinion it is made to look more like its moving away from 98 to 2000. However, if like me youve been using 98 for what seems like an eternity (that being a good thing or bad thing im not entirely sure yet) then you'll slot straight into ME no probs.
Right in terms of when your in the new system. As I said before it is largely the same as 98 (just a lot stabler hopefully, as i'll come onto later). The help system certainly seems to have been rejigged to make the OS more user friendly.
A significant addition to ME over 98 is the mass expansion of the Internet Sharing system, allowing multiple machines to share one internet connection over a LAN. There is now a step by step guide to set this up and to setup a home network in general which 98 didnt have, continuing the theme of user friendliness.
A helpful addition is the new registry restore setup. Before if your computer packs in after an installation (people with PCChips boards will find this particularly useful!), you had to go into safe mode and run the various registry programs like scanreg and regedit to solve your problems. You can now restore from a GUI much in the same way as it works in 2000.
I have seen some benchmarks for the software on websites around the internet and I will now try to evaluate them.
I wont quote actual figures as to no
t confuse people and also because they use an extortionately powerful system (P3 900 and 64Mb GeForce 2!). Incidentally its ME compared with 98 SE.

Winbench CPU Marks - ME better by 0.1 in total of 82.3(insignificant)
Winbench FPU marks - Dead even
Winbench High end graphics - 98SE quicker by 40 in total of 1170
Winbench business graphics - 98SE quicker by 8 in 421

I will quote figures for the following as it is easiest with Win 2k scores coming in now:
Sandra CPU marks - 2000=2577, 98SE=2453, ME=2451
Sandra FPU marks - 2000=1265, 98SE=1258, ME=1254
Sandra MMX - 2000=2941, 98SE=2497, ME=2453
Sandra SSE - 2000=3967, ME=3933, 98SE=3923
Sandra CPU memory - 2000=323, 98SE=319, ME=317
Sandra FPU memory - 2000=353, 98SE=344, ME=342

For the principal of not overcrowding this article with uninspiring benchmark results, I will summarise the 3D Mark scores. 3DMark if you didnt know is an indicator of raw gaming performace. Win 2000 as id expect bombs out big style here. Both 9X based OS's thrash it by twice in some cases so as we knew, 2000 isnt a gaming OS. However the 9X based systems again remain very similar, maybe 98 just edging it, but not significantly enough to ruin ME.
The 2 9X based OS's are very similar. Speed is one thing that shouldnt inspire you to upgrade to ME, what about stability.
From my own personal experience ME is far far more stable than 98. Ive had no significant crashes thus far with ME whereas they were commonplace with 98. This is the big point, stability. Speed shows little difference based on the figures ive seen so stability is a big point because 98 is atrociously unstable.
Overall there a significant steps made in this OS but are they significant enough to warrant the spending of your hard earned money......
Thats a decision that your going to have to take im afraid.

Summary: