February 1, 2000
Web posted at: 2:59 p.m. EST (1959 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) -- Microsoft announced Tuesday that the new consumer version of their Windows operating system will be called the Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, also known as Windows Me.

Windows Me is so dubbed to alleviate what it terms "customer confusion" between the consumer and business editions of Windows. Windows 2000 is actually the successor to the enterprise OS Windows NT, rather than the consumer OS Windows 98, despite what the title implies.

"The name Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me, will help Microsoft to clearly identify this next iteration of the OS as the Windows version designed specifically with the home user in mind," said Shawn Sanford, Microsoft Windows Group Product Manager.

Even the Windows Me packaging will show the product as an upgrade to Windows 98, from the images to statements on the box.

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Windows 2000 is expected to be shipped later this month, while Windows Me won't arrive until the second half of 2000, according to a company spokesperson.

Windows Me Beta 2 -- then known simply by its code-name, 'Millennium' -- went to Microsoft beta testers late last year. The company now says a third beta is due in "four to six weeks," says Michele Haskins, a spokesperson for Microsoft.

The new consumer OS will sport incremental, but still useful, new features such as more multimedia support and tools to simplify home networking of two or more PCs.

The OS will use a new 'Windows Image Acquisition' architecture to help the transfer of pictures between the PC and scanners or digital cameras. A new CD player interface is included, as well as some online-only games such as backgammon, checkers and spades.

The most important change to users will be Windows Me's dedication to 'PC Health,' in this case, ripping out more of the 'legacy' code dedicated to keep older MS-DOS-only programs running and optimizing existing code. The "Real Mode" functions -- which Windows 3.1 veterans will recall back when Windows was little more than a graphical interface for DOS -- are being removed, which the company says will speed the boot-up process and result in a more stable system.

Another step in that direction, the long-awaited merge of the consumer Windows 9x code with the more stable, more secure Windows NT platform is still underway. That project is code-named "Whistler," and a ship date is still unannounced.

The first beta of Internet Explorer 5.5 was included in the Windows Me Beta 2, and is also available online separately.

IE 5.5 will include more support for DHTML, cascading style sheets, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language designed for online multimedia. Also, IE 5.5 returns the "Print Preview" function to the browser, which disappeared in more recent versions of Internet Explorer.