Windows ME

[PJB]

anyone else had a chance to work with Windows ME? It is a huge letdown, 98SE runs 100X better. The first thing you'll run into is a little program called Win Management that likes to run in the backround while you're working, causes major lag. They don't make it easy to shut off either.
I've seen more blue screens this week than i ever have in my life.
It still has some networking issues also, they also involve alot of crashing and burning.
One thing your gonna love is they have changed the Windows grey just enough so that if you have any bitmaps with a grey backround to match Windows your out of luck, they stand out like a sore thumb.....

[alex_read]

True, but it has a million bug fixes noticed / left in win98 & boots 100000000 times faster so it's not all bad :)

Agree it's a waste of money upgrading though !

[PJB]

no it's not all bad, i think people would be better off waiting a couple of months until they have a few more fixes and updates out...
And i shouldn't be noticing any lag(667MHz Pentium III, 128MB Ram, CA810EAL Motherboard) I thought it might have been the computer I'm working on had issues with it, but this is the 3rd system configuration I've used it with and have the same results.

Like i say, give it a little time, I'm sure things will get straightened out eventually, but then of course as soon as they have it running nicely a new version will get released

[alex_read]

Not quite !

I had a sneak update on the next version. Windows 2001 will be out next year. Can't for the life of me remember codename or much about it exept for the fact it's all meant to be for supporting tv & digital more. Seems like they won't bother releasing service packs like win98, but move onto another OS instead. Good old MS :)

[PJB]

that pretty much figures, when ya know people are going to buy your product regardless i guess you can do it anyway you want

[kb244]

You may want to hold out til Win2001(And yes it's real most of us know already) , WinMe offers no performance increase over Win98, they have the same stability and performance, and 80% of the new features in WinMe, are downloadable free onto Win98, the only thing you cant get with 98 (which is good only if yer someone that stupid to hurt your computer, or if you got kids) is the System Recovery , that protects your system files, (the autoupdater is annoying, especially when it choses toupdate at random times while yer in a game), also the fact that they made it look a lil bit more like Win2k, so the only new thing you have is system recovery, and win2k look and feel , not worth the upgrade, not work the 100$ (or 49$) if you actually think about "Paying" for it.

Also the Win2001 is supposed to be another Win9x type model, or least allows the same type of functionality, also in WinMe, there is a removal of the Dos Prompt, as well as the removal of being able to reboot into Dos RealMode. ( and I think the removal of any non-microsoft networking protocals)

[PJB]

my point exactly, fortunately i didn't have to pay for it, you'll also notice they no longer have the SFC feature that you can run from your start menu

[kb244]

Ahh the classic parent paranioa syndrone, they're trying to protect us from ourselves, it'll just be extremely annoying when yer trying to fix something, and you have no quick methods of doing so. They should least have an 'Expert Mode' to enable all that (if they hadnt removed it to start with)

[PJB]

Right, a perfect beginner's computer, Windows ME and AOL, i can see where some of these features may be nice for people who don't know much about their PC's, i just got kind of steamed when it decided to let me know it was 'updating my start menu so programs will start more quickly' in the middle of my Diablo game...
If it's going to do that it could at least have the decency to pause my game before it minimizes it

[kb244]

I can see where this is going to have big problems, none of the *smart* people are going to upgrade to WinME, and then the rest will most likely be AOL users, will be limited to everything, also shouldnt there least be a way to *disable* those updates and such, if we chose to do them manually.

[PJB]

there are ways to disable a good portion of them, but on most of them it involves multiple settings to shut off even one feature

[alex_read]

I am fairly good with windows, but have not heard of SFC, what's this abriviation for ???? :p

[PJB]

It stands for System File Check in 98(SE at least) you could run it from Start|Run and it would show you all the files that have been altered since the last time you ran it

[alex_read]

Right, cheers for that, I realise what the hell you meant now!

[PJB]

In Windows ME to disable System Restore:
MY Computer|Properties|Performance|File System|Troubleshooting there's a checkbox there to disable it.

Automatic Updates:
Control Panel|Automatic Updates and a checkbox there for that

those are the ones I remember off the top of my head

also you'll want to go to Scheduled tasks and disable the PCHealth Scheduler for data collection

[Edited by PJB on 09-12-2000 at 10:24 AM]

[kb244]

Hmm what has it come to, pretty soon Win9x types will be the OS for the weak, and incapable, while you would have to goto NT to get any control at all.

I wonder if 2001 is going to be like a MAC Os System that keeps our hands tied "oooo soo pretty, but I cant turn it off"

Maybe it's just a step closer to world domination, hehe (ever wonder if those updaters built into the system does more than just update, and without the run or dos prompt you cant check to see if it's doing more than that)

[PJB]

my theory is this, If my computer is going to do what it wants when it wants then Bill Gates can start paying me rent on the space it's taking up

It would seem that some information has to be going somewhere in order to tell what updates i have installed, regardless of what the Windows update page tells ya

[alex_read]

Saw in a recent article that the words "Send 1,0000 pounds to Bill Gates" appears subliminally on your monitor every 5 seconds and a noise with slightly less pitch than a dog whistle keeps blurting "Microsoft are the best, you want to go out and spend more money on their fantastic products" appears through the speakers so that only your sub-consious can hear it, this happens if you buy windows 2001 apparently ...