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Windows Millennium Edition , or Windows Me marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me" , [5] is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windows 98 , and was released to manufacturing on June 19, , and then to retail on September 14, It was Microsoft's main operating system for home users until the introduction of its successor Windows XP in October Windows Me was initially positively received, but it soon garnered a negative reception from users due to stability issues, and is now viewed by many as one of the worst operating systems Microsoft has ever produced.
In October , Windows XP was released to the public, having already been under development at the time of Windows Me's release, [9] and popularized most of Windows Me's features, while being far more stable. After the introduction of Windows XP, mainstream support for Windows Me ended on December 31, , followed by extended support on July 11, At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates stated that Windows 98 would be the last iteration of Windows to use the Windows 9x kernel, with the intention for the next consumer-focused version to be based on the NT kernel, unifying the two branches of Windows.
However, it soon became apparent that the development work involved was too great to meet the aim of releasing before the end of , particularly given the ongoing parallel work on the eventually-canceled Microsoft Neptune project.
The Consumer Windows development team was therefore re-tasked with improving Windows 98 while porting some of the look-and-feel from Windows On July 23, , the first alpha version of Windows Me was released to testers. Called Development Preview 1, it was very similar to Windows 98 SE, with a very early iteration of the new Help and Support feature as the only major change. Three more Development Previews were released over the subsequent two months. The first beta version was released to testers and the industry press on September 24, , with the second coming on November 24 that year.
Beta 2 showed the first real changes from Windows 98, including importing much of the look-and-feel from Windows , and the removal of real-mode DOS. Industry expert Paul Thurrott reviewed Beta 2 upon release and spoke positively of it in a review. The reason given in the case of Me was that the OS was designed for consumers. However, Thurrott alleged that the real motivation behind both case to force software developers to move to Windows Microsoft also apologized personally to Thurrott, claiming he received misinformation, though in a follow-up article he stated that it was "clear that the decision [ Beta 3 was released on April 11, , and this version marked the first appearance of its final startup and shutdown sounds derived from Windows , as the previous betas used Windows 98's startup and shutdown sounds.
Although Microsoft signed off on the final build of Windows Me on June 28, , after trialing three Release Candidate builds with testers, the final retail release was pushed back to September 14 for reasons that were not clear. Shortly after Windows Me was released to manufacturing on June 19, , [16] Microsoft launched a marketing campaign to promote it in the U.
A national partnered promotional program featured the new OS, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multimedia attraction in 25 cities. Windows Me was released for retail sale on September 14, Windows Me featured the shell enhancements inherited from Windows such as personalized menus, customizable Windows Explorer toolbars, auto-complete in Windows Explorer address bar and Run box, Windows advanced file type association features, displaying comments in shortcuts as tooltips, extensible columns in Details view IColumnProvider interface , icon overlays, integrated search pane in Windows Explorer, sort by name function for menus, Places bar in common dialogs for Open and Save , cascading Start menu special folders , some Plus!
The notification area in Windows Me and later supported bit high color icons. The Multimedia control panel was also updated from Windows Taskbar and Start Menu options allowed disabling of the drag and drop feature and could prevent moving or resizing the taskbar, which was easier for new users.
As a result, IO. SYS could not be loaded and older applications that require real mode could not be run. Microsoft argued that the change improved the speed and reliability of the boot process. BAT files are used only to set global environment variables. The two files if present are scanned for settings relating to the environment variables, and any other commands present are moved into a Windows registry key see below.
The two files thus contain only settings and preferences which configure the "global environment" for the computer during the boot phase or when starting a new virtual DOS machine VDM. BAT file the user must edit the following Windows registry key:. It is possible to restore real mode DOS functionality through various unofficial means. Unlike past versions of Windows 9x, Windows Me was entirely aimed at home users, and thus had certain enterprise -oriented features removed.
These features were supported on its predecessors, Windows 98 and Windows While some were simply moved to a different location, certain functionality of the Go menu, as well as the Find command on the Tools menu, are no longer available.
For the latter change Microsoft recommends using a variety of similar functionality labeled Search. Windows Me could have its components upgraded or have new components installed up to the latest versions:. Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year. Windows XP is noteworthy that the first preview build of Windows XP then codenamed "Whistler" was released to developers on July 13, , two months before Me's general availability date.
Microsoft planned to end support for Windows Me on December 31, However, in order to give customers more time to migrate to newer Windows versions, particularly in developing or emerging markets, Microsoft decided to extend support until July 11, The Windows Update website continued to be available after Windows ME's end of support date, however, during , Microsoft retired the Windows Update v4 website and removed the updates for Windows ME from its servers.
Windows Me initially received generally positive reviews, with reviewers citing the operating system's integrity protection branded as "PC Health" and the new System Restore feature as steps forward for home users. As time went on, the reception became more negative, to the point where it was heavily panned by users, mainly due to stability issues.
Retrospectively, Windows Me is viewed as the worst operating system Microsoft has ever produced, being unfavorably compared to its immediate predecessor and successor.
The article states: "Shortly after Me appeared in late , users reported problems installing it, getting it to run, getting it to work with other hardware or software, and getting it to stop running. System Restore suffered from a bug in the date-stamping functionality that could cause System Restore to date-stamp snapshots that were taken after September 8, , incorrectly. This could prevent System Restore from locating these snapshots and cause the system restore process to fail.
Microsoft released an update to fix this problem. Byron Hinson and Julien Jay, writing for ActiveWin, took an appreciative look on the operating system. On the removal of real mode DOS , they had noted "The removal of DOS has clearly made a difference in Windows Me in terms of stability far less Blue screen of death are seen now and booting speed has greatly increased. The result is great and the enhancements added are really worth the wait.
Along with Windows from the NT family, Windows Me was the last version of Windows that lacked product activation. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Personal computer operating system by Microsoft released in Not to be confused with Windows CD or DVD drive 3.
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