Microsoft Me

Clarence Wilson · Post by **Clarence Wilson** » 9 Mar 2001 5:15 am

Recently purchased a computer with Me installed. I still have the old one sitting beside it on the same bench. The first thing I found out is the sound system is different.
The modem sounds come over the main speakers and are very loud like the commercials on tv.
I have to turn down the sound to a whisper.

The old computer uses the little tweeter.

Me is intolerable slow, compared to my old Win 98. I am thinking about installing my old 98 into the newer model.

I have been trying to install Linus into the old computer, too, but can't figure out the
'partitions', so probably will give up on this idea. Getting too old, I guess.

By the way: I now have the eyes of a teen ager. My first Lasik was jan 02 and my last was feb 20. I am busy catching up on a years worth of PC mags. Also trying to decipher the Linux manuals, now that I can see again.

But, alas, I found out I am 'brain dead, as
far as the Linux stuff. shoot!!

CEW

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Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 9 Mar 2001 7:32 am

Clarence it's "LINUX", Linus is a character in Peanuts cartoon. In order to run Linux on your old PC you will have to have Linux drivers for your devices and that is a major problem as many of the devices do not have Linux drivers available and you will have to try and adapt other drivers if you can. If you are not a computer tech I'd suggest you avoid Linux as it requires machine language knowledge.

Windows ME is a major improvement over Windows 98 especially in the multimedia areas. It has many recovery features built in that Windows 98 does not have and is a much more stable operating system. A lot of the internal modules in Win ME are either the commerical Windows NT/2000 Operating system modules or are based on the NT/2000 modules. I upgraded from Win98 to WinME and have not had a "blue screen of death" since upgrading.

As far as the audio sounding better, the new machine probably has better audio hardware. The Operating system doesn't really have a thing to do with that.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 9 Mar 2001 10:45 am

You should be able to turn off the modem sounds coming from your speakers. You won't find it in the Sounds options, though. Check out your modem configuration.

Windows ME is a major improvement over Windows 98. It's a bit of a chore to get it configured to the "look and feel" of the older systems, but once you do you find that it's a lot more stable.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 9 Mar 2001 2:19 pm

There is another Linus besides the one in the cartoons. He created Linux.

Geoff Brown · Post by **Geoff Brown** » 16 Mar 2001 11:44 pm

Still, ME is basically win98, with some extra goodies. What Microsoft doesn't tell you is that most of the ME upgrades can be found as free d.loads on the microsoft site.

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 17 Mar 2001 1:04 am

Everybody I know of (includeing me) that has upgraded to "ME" has went back to "98". ME has too many bugs, way too slow, even some PC mags have suggested not to upgrade to it.

(IMHO) "ME" has nothing in it worth upgradeing to unless you are into "WEB" type stuff. Even then, it's very buggy and causes too many "blue screen" problems.

"Windows 98 SE" is the best O/S for the home user. NT is a bit hard to install,use and had as few bugs too. As for "Windows 2000", forget it !! A real piece of trash. (altho, the "professional" version of 2000 is O.K. Who can afford it ??) The professional version is what the standard version should have been !!

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Crook on 17 March 2001 at 01:09 AM.]</p></FONT>

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Mar 2001 4:39 am

On the surface, Windows ME does not appear to be an enhancement over Windows 98 and if someone is expecting it to look different, as an indication of improvement it's not there.

However the internal, and not obvious, enhancements are it's plus point. If you really get into it you will find that a lot of the modules are Windows NT modules or modified NT/2000 modules. There is less DOS support and more NT like just Windows operating system support.

The recovery feature alone makes Windows ME worth while. Windows 95 did not have anything, in Windows 98 they had the "SFC" (System File Checker) that could track system files (if you run it periodically and establish an initial database). The SFC has been eliminated in favor of a recovery feature that you can fall back to a point prior to whatever is causing your system to malfunction. e.g. if you accidentally delete a necessary file(s) or install a program that screws things up you can recover from a point prior to the file deletions or prior to the program installation.

Most programs that encounter an error or crash can be closed and restarted without having to restart windows. I've had Windows ME upgrade installed since it came out and have not had ANY "blue screen of death" crashes since I installed it.

I would recommend a minimum of 128Mb of memory with Win ME. The 64 MB that comes with most new PC's is really inadequate.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 17 Mar 2001 10:03 am

I got ME on my new laptop. Haven't really noticed any problems with it, but I don't use it a lot like I do my desktop.

But, it came with 196 MB of RAM (soon to be upgraded to 320 MB).

Haven't looked into the 'restore' feature that Jack mentioned. That sounds promising. Is there something I have to do NOW to make it possible to restore at a later date, or is that automatically taken care of for me?

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Mar 2001 10:35 am

Windows ME restore feature automatically logs all changes and from what I can tell, even if you delete a file or an entire folder it will restore it. I'm not sure how the "recycle bin" comes into it, but I leave it alone and don't empty it.

You access the restore feature through the "msconfig" panel (msconfig was in Win98 but this has expanded options).

One downside to the WinME msconfig is the startup panel. In Win98 if you didn't want something to load at startup all you had to do was uncheck it in msconfig and it wouldn't load. In WinME you can uncheck the item and it won't run at startup but you will get an alert message when you startup that (I don't remember the exact wording) to the effect that startup items have been disabled for troubleshooting. In WinME if you want to delete something permanently from startup (and the program does not give you the option to not run at startup)you have to edit the registry and remove the item.

Clarence Wilson · Post by **Clarence Wilson** » 18 Mar 2001 12:55 pm

My Me locked up in dos mode a couple days ago
at boot up. Took awhile to find my backup disc. Got it into safe mode...Followed in structions and used the famous back-up. I went back a couple days (a choice of about 10 days). Everything came back to normal.

My other computer is still sitting here and it never locked up at any time in 2 1/2 years.

Have not found anything in Me to recommend it.
Of course my newer computer is an Intel 4
with a speed of 1500 and a 60 HD. The older
in Intel 11 and a 10 HD.

Am still debating going back to 98i.

CEW

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 18 Mar 2001 3:04 pm

Clarence, I suspect you have a BIOS configuration or hardware problem. If it hangs up at that point it's really has not got very far into initialization. Also Windows ME has reduced DOS support over the older versions.

With a new PC, there are a lot of potential problems other than the operating system. I suspect if you load WIN98 on the new machine it will intermittently lock up too.

Although I still do some limited computer consulting and support, things like this is the reason I've never opened a consumer computer shop. I don't mean this in a derrogatory way, but after 40 years of computer maintenance and hardware help desk tech support I'm skeptical when someone assumes what is wrong as you have.