Windows ME Criticisms

[Paul Komski]

I keep seeing various anti-ME comments here and there. I bought a new PC last September that had ME preinstalled on it. Having seen these adverse comments I was expecting problems and was all ready to do a clean install with 98se. But I have to say that I have had no real problems that I can relate to the OS; no blue screens and a much more stable system than the Win98se previously used.

So what gives here peeps? What am I missing or what is in store for me?? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul

[iisbob]

Do a quick search of the forums and you'l find several threads where we have commented on just this topic.

personally the only problems i have with it is it's poor memory menagement and the dubious system restore feature. The memory problem can be patched and the system restore disabled, then it's actually as stable as 98 from all i've seen. but if you have 98, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade to it.






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iisbob

CPU= 5mhz
Memory= 16 K
Storage=10.2MB's
Video=Onboard S3 4K
Modem=14.4 baud
Sound=ISA Yamaha 8bit
Mouse=2 button MS
Monitor=ACER 12.5"
OS= WIN 3.1

My ultimate gaming system :)

[Rick]

What if anything have you added to your system?
In regard to hardware and software?

Many people run into problems when they add items Not included with the systems.

From my own personal experience with ME .
After doing a reinstall from the original cd’s I had to chase down drivers from all over the net.
Something the people who assembled the system had to do also.
But they neglected to include these Updated drivers with the system.
In that same case it found and installed the wrong drivers for a winmodem.
I had to Remove the modem. And drivers completely from the system to use the correct drivers..
Plug and Pray strikes again

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !

[Paul Komski]

Phew! That was quick UbobU http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif and thanks; will do some searching. I've got ME but I see some people have reverted to 98. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul

p.s. And same to you Rick (loads of software added; lexmark printer and visioneer scanner and seagate slave HDD added with no probs.) Plug 'n Pray - neat. Will it be Universal Plug and Pray like mad?
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by Paul Komski (edited 01-20-2002).]

[mjc]

I have found that there are parts of ME that work very well....the defrag, much better/faster than 98's. But most of those could have been done as updates to 98 since ME was a stop gap to fill in because XP wasn't quite ready for prime-time yet...the few features that aren't updates are probably the most annoying/problematic ones (the preview of all image files, the "restore" and the way ME handles auto-updates... to name a few) can most often be disabled...but I don't really think they warrant the money MS wants for them......

So if you have it on a new machine and it is working, fine leave it that way...it isn't really any better than 98se, and not much worse (with most of the extras disabled)...but if you have 98 DoN'T "upgrade" to it just because it is there...for the actual benefits gained the cost doesn't work out...and most of the problems I have seen can probably be traced to the fact that the machine wasn't quite ME ready (there are some 9x drivers that won't work in ME because certain registry keys are no longer valid, DOS support is crippled, or there is just enough of a change in the main systems files to make them choke....) or not enough memory (ME takes more than 98 does just get up and running.........and is incredibly slow on 64MB or less (my personnal opinion 128MB or less)



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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[diurnal]

Hey its got new screen savers , forgot that one. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

[Paul Komski]

mjc Thanks a lot - very useful and interesting; esp re DOS and Registry differences. At the end of last summer the PSU went on my main PC (which was a weird and tiny PSU and impossible to replace). Since I had 90% completed some software design and had a deadline to meet I went out and bought a PackardBell "package" in a bit of a rush; (a) to get me by and (b) with a view to having a system I swore that I wouldn't mess around with (which I'm very prone to do!!). It has 1.3GHz-AMD/20GB-HDD/256MB-RAM and is possibly why ME hasn't been overtaxed. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

I have now got my old pc going by getting a standard PSU, insulated and earthed it, added some extensions to the dc output and it hangs there out of the back of the pc! It has 600MHz/3GB/32MB; so now I will just have to try ME on it and watch-out for a bit of "fun and games!" and play some "Reg-tweaking" on it too. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Diurnal. What's a screen saver?? http://community.theunderdogs.org/smiley/happy/googlyeyes.gif Actually I never use the darn things. If anything's gonna save a screen its a black monitor with no LEDs showing!!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif "MurphsLaw 3 Nothing is as easy as it looks" hehehe What about Mae West??


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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul


[This message has been edited by Paul Komski (edited 01-21-2002).]

[bassman]

LOL Paul,
You may not want to install ME from you P.B. disk (if that is what you have) as this is designed for that machine only.
You would be in for some REAL WILD TIMES with that setup http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
Might be worth a try to copy the Cab files to the HDD and install from there.

Good luck and have some fun with it. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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Waiting patiently for the future to arrive Frank's Place (http://www.members.aol.com/frankscompsrvice)

[Paul Komski]

Thanks for the tip bassman

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul