WinME question

[scoutt]

I was just curious as I had a conversation with one of the head techs where I work and it was brought up that winme didn't have a win2k kernel.

I could have swore that I read somewhere that it did have that kernel. then I read just a few hours ago that it had the win9x kernel.

If it does have that kernel, why in the hell is it so hard to get drivers and some software to work on it?

My sister had it on her machine but the software that worked on win98 but didn't work on winME, so she got rid of it, thank god.

does anybody have any clues to this?

[Xenonic_Rob]

Hi.

WinMe runs off the Win98 kernel. Basically Micro$oft have re-written chunks of the coding, but it's still the Win98 kernel.
As for the drivers ... don't download anything unless it specifically says it's for WinMe. Most developers assume that if it works with Win98 that it will on Me - but in the case of drivers it usually doesn't. Programs should work fine, but only use Win98 drivers with Me if you really HAVE to

That's what makes WinXP really special. WinXP runs of the Win2k kernel, but with enhancements from Me/98. So it combines the stability of Win2k with the user-friendliness and home use of Me/98 to give you a fantastic OS.

OS's by Micro$oft are always really weird. For example, I read somewhere that you can't use DirectX 4 or above on NT4 - simply because of driver issues ... but Win2k and above sorts this out.

Hope this helps.

[scoutt]

so if winME is just win98 on steriods then what is so special about it. I mean why won't drivers run on it if it is pretty much the same.

And I have seen software not run on it that run on win9x

but thanks for the comments Xenonic_Rob, anybody else??

[Xenonic_Rob]

Like I said, chunks of the kernel have been rewritten, and because of this, many drivers won't work with it. I don't know the technical details of it, but it's to do with the changes.

[scoutt]

thanks for your input, I was just double checking

[Xenonic_Rob]

No probs.