Windows Me, 20 years later: Was it really that bad?

Twenty years ago, at the turn of the millennium, we saw some serious bugs in global software. No, we are not talking about Y2K. We are talking about Windows Me or Windows Millennium, which were named "Murlenium" in Greece and "Windows Mistake Edition" by PCWorld.

Η released Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000. Windows 2000 was a forgotten masterpiece, offering a solid, 32-bit , designed for professional use. It was based on Windows NT, technology that still forms the core of Windows 10 today.

A strange pit stop on the way to Windows XP


Seven months later, Microsoft released on September 14, 2000 the Windows Millennium Edition (Me). This operating system was designed for home users. It was based on Windows 98 SE and still had DOS under the hood.

Windows Me had an incredibly short lifespan: Microsoft replaced it with Windows XP on October 25, 2001, a little over a year later.

With Windows XP, Microsoft has put everything together, releasing a Windows NT-based home consumer operating system. It was also an operating system for businesses. Before that, home users had Windows Me.

Because Windows Me was supposed to be exciting


Windows Me was designed to upgrade to Windows 98 Second Edition. THE Microsoft's website then promised that Windows Me they will make your household "media entertainment center" thanks to Windows Media Player 7 and Windows Movie Maker. It boasted that Windows would be easier to use with an "improved user experience" thanks to features like "new wizards". Home networking setup has also been simplified.

Under the hood, Windows Me received some από τα Windows 2000. Αυτό περιλαμβάνει την Επαναφορά Συστήματος για την επαναφορά of the operating system in known situations, as well as System File Protection to protect important system files from being modified.

Windows Me also removed support for real-mode DOS, which made the operating system boot faster, but made it less compatible with older DOS software that may still be used by consumers.

In the end, there were a variety of smaller features and low-end system upgrades, but that did not affect most home users, who were largely stuck with Windows 98. Unless you were buying a new computer that would come with Windows Me, there was no reason to spend $ 209 for the full retail version or $ 109 for the upgrade version.

Especially when it was discovered how unstable Windows Me was.

The reality of Windows Me: Windows 98 SE but with bugs


The Windows 9x series of operating systems - Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me - has always been criticized for being unstable. Everything was based on DOS, as was Windows 3.0.

Windows Me was even more unstable than Windows 98. We all saw it when we used it twenty years ago. PCWorld's Dan Tynan called them the "Mistake Edition" of Windows and said it was one of the 25 worst tech products of all time. In Greece, the whole technical world was making fun of them by calling them Windows Murlenium, obviously because they were driving you crazy with their bugs.

Why were there so many blue screens and other problems? Who knows. The Windows 9x series has always been volatile. Windows Me had some new features: They introduced, for example, System Restore, a feature that allegedly caused problems for some people at the time. Users reported hardware support issues in specific system configurations. Maybe Windows Me needed more development time.

The bugs didn't really affect businesses, which were encouraged to use Windows 2000 on workstations their. While Windows 95 and Windows 98 were designed for both home and business use, with Windows Me suddenly there were significantly different versions of Windows for the office and for home computers, and the home version was, unsurprisingly, less reliable.

Of course, many people then reported that Windows Me was stable on their systems. Because Windows 98 was also often unstable, as well as DOS-based, they may not have felt much of a change since Windows 98.

But users working with Windows 2000 would have wondered: Why is Windows Me not so stable?

Forward for Windows 2000
The release of Windows 2000 showed a way forward for Microsoft, but unfortunately the company did not bring Windows NT to home users until the advent of Windows XP.

Meanwhile, some people who had heard bad things about Windows Me were not waiting for the next series. They bought Windows 2000, which was intended for businesses only. Windows 2000 Professional cost $ 319 for a full version or $ 219 for an upgrade from Windows 98 or 95. That was $ 110 more than Windows Me.

Of course, these are for those users who were legal and bought their operating system. At that time, illegal "broken" software was widespread. Even in the operating system. Microsoft could not easily lock in illegal users (or did not want to) and so rarely did a home user have purchased an operating system. Of course, the scene changed with the entry of XP and even more with Windows 7.

And yes, some users at the time were installing Windows 2000 pirated disks, which they often copied from their workplaces, arguing that operating system piracy was acceptable since they had already paid Microsoft for Windows Me. Was it legal? No. Was it understandable that people wanted a stable version of Windows that did not have constant bugs? Of course.

Then there were several users, dissatisfied with Winodws, began to explore Linux. Desktop Linux has been much more sophisticated to use since 2000 than it is today, but it was definitely stable.

Windows XP saved the situation


Finally, Windows XP puts an end to the chaos of Windows 2000 and Windows Me. Microsoft did not have to put a service pack on Windows Me and spend time fixing it, as it did with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows 8.1.

Instead, Microsoft released Windows XP and brought the more stable Windows NT operating system to home users. The friendlier display and multimedia features from Windows Me found their way into Windows XP, in a more stable form. Windows XP was more compatible with consumer applications that might have had problems with Windows 2000.

With the release of Windows XP, both business and home users are now using the same version of Windows for desktops. Sure, there were Home and Professional versions, with a few different features, but both were the same basic operating system.

Of course, Windows XP also had its problems. Security issues were resolved only with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Now, however, everyone nostalgically remembers Windows XP and many users are stuck with them for a long time.

microsoft windows xp service pack 3

But people do not miss Windows Me the same way. Even if you want to upgrade to a DOS-based version of Windows to run older software, you'll definitely prefer Windows 98.

iGuRu.gr The Best Technology Site in Greecefgns

every post, directly to your

Join the 2.100 registrants.

Written by Dimitris

Dimitris hates on Mondays .....

3 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Very misunderstood operating system but the problem was the drivers of the time. Let's not forget then the number of graphics cards with thousands of problems, while today we have 2 instead of 3. The chipsets on the motherboards with SIS and VIA are problematic and so on. I tried them in Abit BX PIII with TNT card and Voodoo2 and 6,4 WD mem128 winME disk I've never had a problem with a Soyo Via chipset AMD K6 graphics Intel 745 8MB + Voodoo1 Seagate 10GB mem64 win98se every 4 months format Let's judge the products based on their time and what crazy things existed at that time for Gaming PCs. Where are all these companies, Abit, Soyo, Matrox, Via, Diamond, etc. There was no proper support for their products, resulting in complaints. It's just that MS, seeing that D3D prevails against glide, AND properly invested in XP since DirectX was only for windows and not Dos. We lived the rest

  2. I must be the only one who enjoyed Me….
    I remember with 98 and 98SE every 3 to 4 months format !!!!
    And as soon as I got a copy of Me λα I put them on trial (as it was time for the standard format) and the next format I did was after 4 years !!!

    The same with Vista….

    Well you come in and something is wrong with me ???

  3. It was one of the many failures of Microsoft.
    In the office where I was IT we happened to need 2 new PCs around November of 2OOO and I thought it would be good to put the Me that had been released recently. In 2 months I had formatted and put 98!
    Since then I am very wary of what Microsoft is releasing, if not a few months pass and if I do not try them in a UAT environment it will not go into production.

Leave a reply

Your email address is not published. Required fields are mentioned with *

Your message will not be published if:
1. Contains insulting, defamatory, racist, offensive or inappropriate comments.
2. Causes harm to minors.
3. It interferes with the privacy and individual and social rights of other users.
4. Advertises products or services or websites.
5. Contains personal information (address, phone, etc.).