I had heard that the latest installment of the 9x family was not much more than 98 with version 7 of Windows Media Player attached and just a few cosmetic enhancements, so I really wasn't prepared for what was awaiting me when I finally got my hot little hands on Windows Me. The install was the same blue screen with the black bar at the side, and it looked pretty much just like the install of 98, but if it ain't broke (the install, that is) don't fix it.

Once I got through those three or four obligitory restarts and made it to the desktop, a nice, light blue desktop awaited me. I installed some software and the first thing I noticed when I started playing with the software was that for the very first time, my 700MHz Athlon actually felt what I had always envisioned that a 700MHz processor should feel like!!!

After enjoying this new found speed, I tried a restart and was giddy with joy when I found myself back on the desktop in under 20 seconds! I did a little further investigating and found that they've incorperated a very easy to use Go Back feature to the OS called System Restore. It's nice to know that if some buggy software brings you down, it's very easy to get back to the last snapshot of your previously working registry.

What a difference an OS makes! Alot can be said about Microsoft and their maniacal quest to destroy the competition at any cost, but as big of a giant as they are, they still really do listen to the consumer. I think the consumer has been saying, "give us more stability" more than anything else and they're finally delivering. Who knows, in a couple months I may report back to you with a revised view of this, but as for right now after a week of installing lots of software and tweaking with the OS to my heart's content, the stability of this OS feels rock solid!

Hopefully they'll keep the full version under $200, and if they do, it will be well worth the money spent.

If you've tried WinMe yourself, I'd like to know what you think!