Review: Windows Millennium Edition

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July 24, 2000
Web posted at: 1:41 p.m. EDT (1741 GMT)

by Scott Spanbauer

(IDG) -- It's the end of an era.

Windows Me--Microsoft's cutesy abbreviation for Millennium Edition--is billed as the last member of the product line that began conquering the world's desktops five years ago with the ascension of Windows 95. (Yes, Microsoft said the same of Windows 98 before it arrived, but this time the company seems to mean it.)

This final installment in the Windows 9x family includes flashy gewgaws and an important new suite of system recovery utilities, all aimed at device-happy consumers who like multimedia tools and who long for a more crash-resistant PC. Businesses using Windows 95 or 98 will also find things to like about Me. In particular, its recovery capabilities could entice systems administrators who are driven to distraction by users who crash machines after installing unauthorized software. But companies that need rock-solid stability, powerful networking capabilities, and serious security features are far better off migrating to Windows 2000 Professional.

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Home is where the heart is for Me. An enhanced digital video and audio player, brand-new digital camera and scanner interfaces, and a basic video editor make Me the most thoroughly multimedia-enabled Windows operating system yet. Windows Me also comes with a new Home Networking Wizard, online games, and the long-awaited shipping version of Internet Explorer 5.5.

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Two powerful system-safety features--which Microsoft has grouped under the general heading of PC Health--are among Me's best innovations. One is an invisible watchdog that prevents disastrous changes to system files. Even better is a rollback tool that lets you revert to an earlier system configuration, helping your PC recover more easily from Windows' inevitable crashes. The rollback tool will be a godsend to anyone who has ever experienced the torture of trying to revive a PC that's been torpedoed by crummy software.

PC World put the final shipping code of Windows Me to the test, trying out its system recovery, file protection, Internet, and digital media doodads. We also compared Me's start-up, shutdown, and overall performance with Windows 98's.

Our conclusion: The Me-exclusive PC Health features are the best reason to invest in the $119 upgrade. But if you aren't pining for recovery features, you don't really need Me. Instead, wait for Microsoft to fix the inevitable bugs and incompatibilities (we found a few), or hold out for the next version of Windows, code-named Whistler. Meanwhile, enjoy the various new features you can download independently of the OS.

There's More of Me

Though Microsoft isn't touting Windows Me as a performance-boosting upgrade, the company does say the OS boots up faster than Windows 98 SE, and our tests corroborate this claim.

Freed from processing config.sys and autoexec.bat and displaying the whole MS-DOS user interface, Windows Me booted up about 35 percent faster than Windows 98 SE, which takes 84 seconds. Shutdown times, already in the 3-second neighborhood for Win 98 SE, decreased by half.

Overall, Windows Me performed a tad slower than its predecessors on our PC WorldBench 2000 suite of business applications--probably due to the greater number of housekeeping tasks the PC Health features handle. But the performance difference is so small--less than 5 percent in our tests on a group of 21 desktops and five notebooks--that most users won't detect a slowdown in typical business applications. Windows Me also consumes much more disk space than Windows 98 SE.

Windows Me Is More Demanding

Microsoft says your PC needs at least a 150-MHz Pentium CPU to run Win Me--and the company means it. Try installing the OS on a slower machine, and you'll get a polite error message saying sorry, but you need a faster processor--and by the way, click OK to exit Setup. I overrode the 150-MHz limitation on my ancient Pentium-75 laptop (using the command setup /nm) just to see whether the OS would run at all. The installation dragged on for nearly two hours, but afterward Windows Me appeared to run just as well as Windows 98--which is to say, extremely slowly.

I couldn't do much with the computer anyway: Windows Me's default installation gobbled up 657MB of my laptop's undernourished 774MB drive. Though I probably could have gained some breathing room by disabling or uninstalling individual features, I chose to back out of Windows Me instead. Fortunately, the uninstall routine returned me to Windows 98 without mishap.

Even if your PC meets Microsoft's system requirements (which include 32MB of memory, 320MB of free disk space, and an Internet connection), you may want to think twice before upgrading. Most of the good stuff is available for downloading into a Win 9x environment. (See "Windows Me Too.") And jumping to Me entails forfeiting some compatibility, mainly with older DOS programs and drivers. A readme file on the installation CD-ROM notes that Adaptec's GoBack, NAI's PGP Desktop Security, and some antivirus utilities may prevent Win Me from installing: You'll have to disable them first.

Multimedia: Just Shoot Me

Over the years, Microsoft has done a pretty good job of supporting the PC's development into a multimedia playback device. Windows Me's new media tools look like the next logical step in that evolution--until you examine them more closely.

The Scanner and Camera Wizard lets you view your digital camera's pictures, copy them to the hard disk, look at the camera's internal properties (such as flash setting, battery status, and focus mode) and even snap a picture from the keyboard or mouse (something you might want to do in an office where the camera isn't near the PC). It also allows you to transfer image files directly from the camera to documents or e-mail. To work with the wizard, your scanner or camera must support Microsoft's newly minted Windows Image Acquisition programming interface. It probably already does: Microsoft's list of WIA-compatible devices includes many older camera models. Microsoft promises the list will include newer models in time for Windows Me's September ship date.

But don't run out and buy Windows Me just because you have a digital camera. Most of them come packaged with software that does everything the Scanner and Camera Wizard does and much more. In my tests with a Kodak DC290, for example, I found that the camera's included software lets you tweak every single feature--and a couple of settings are available through that software only. To my consternation, Windows Me automatically disabled Kodak's software to prevent conflicts with WIA.

Fortunately, the incompatibility doesn't extend to third-party tools that access your camera or scanner using the TWAIN interface. Because WIA supports TWAIN, I was able to import photos into Adobe Photoshop without trouble. But until your camera or scanner maker delivers a WIA-compatible version of its software, you probably shouldn't upgrade to Windows Me. In the long run, WIA will benefit PC owners by helping camera manufacturers connect their devices to Windows more easily, but WIA offers almost no additional capabilities to users of existing cameras.

Windows Me Offers Fix-It Features

One problem that has long plagued Windows is the operating system's lax control over how programs and drivers behave. Windows NT and its successor, Windows 2000 Professional, impose much more stringent standards on program behavior--but as a result, they are less compatible with the thousands of available Windows 9x applications and devices. Windows Me is just as easygoing as its Windows 9x predecessors, but it adds a couple of PC Health tools to help you avoid and recover from bugs.

The PC World Test Center tested both the System File Protection and System Restore features and found that each delivers exactly what it promises. System File Protection keeps an eye on key Windows system files, instantly and transparently restoring them if a program or user overwrites or deletes them. When we deleted a group of system files or overwrote them with earlier versions, SFP reinstated the originals immediately. SFP also sprang into action when we installed drivers for an older USB scanner (the Logitech PageScan USB) that Windows Me doesn't support, restoring the Windows Me version of a USB system file after the Logitech installer overwrote it. People who like to have maximum control over their computers may object to SFP--and for better or worse, it can't be disabled.

You Can Roll Back Time

Another common problem is compatibility: You install a driver or application, only to find that it conflicts with something else in your system. Unfortunately, uninstalling the offending software may not correct the situation, since uninstallers don't always remove every trace of a program. System Restore lets you return your computer to the earlier state it was in at a specified moment you choose from a PC-generated list of system checkpoints (the frequency of these system copying operations depends on how much free disk space your PC has and how often you make changes). In our tests, System Restore worked as advertised--and quickly, too. Most rollback operations took a minute or less, not including the necessary reboot.

Besides removing shortcuts and Registry entries, System Restore actually removes installed applications. Even more impressive, it lets you undo its own changes if you change your mind about rolling back--or decide to roll back to a different system checkpoint. The utility compresses and stores removed files and settings on the hard disk, and you choose how much disk space to allocate to the compressed files. On one test system endowed with plenty of free space, the setting options ranged from 200MB to 400MB; on an older system with less free space, the range was 25MB to 50MB.

Take Me to the Net

Windows Me's other enticements are lightweight Internet fare. One improves on Windows 98 SE's breakthrough Internet sharing feature, which at long last permitted several networked PCs to share a single Internet connection. Though this feature worked like a champ, it pretty much lacked a user interface. Windows Me remedies this with its Home Networking Wizard, which guides you through the tasks of connecting a group of PCs and sharing a Net connection among them.

Most Windows Me users won't notice that the OS carries an updated browser. The shipping version of Internet Explorer 5.5 incorporates numerous bug fixes, as well as support for just-issued HTML specs, but only one visible new feature: a long overdue Print Preview. Like Windows Media Player 7, IE 5.5 is available as a free download. If you're Net connected, you may want to try out one of several included Internet-hosted games. But you don't need Windows Me to play checkers, backgammon, and chess over the Internet: The same games are available at zone.msn.com.

To Me or Not to Me?

Windows Me joins an already crowded OS field this fall. One alternative, Windows 2000, has proved stable, secure, and mostly compatible with newer systems (especially ones that have received BIOS upgrades), peripherals, and applications. But it lacks the easy software compatibility of Windows 98 and Windows Me, and it costs about $100 more. Home users interested in simplicity and unconcerned with security will probably opt for Windows Me. Most businesses will be better off with Windows 2000.

When Windows Me launches, PC manufacturers will probably offer desktop buyers who want a Win 9x series machine a choice between Windows 98 SE and Windows Me. Your decision may come down to whether Windows Me's suite of digital knickknacks and system utilities means more to you than the relative simplicity and familiarity of Windows 98 SE.

If you're trying to squeeze the last drops of performance out of a Pentium-90, you should avoid Windows Me's greater system requirements. And digital camera buffs should make sure that a WIA-compatible version of their camera's software is available before they upgrade. Millennium Edition is the latest version of Windows, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the best for you.

Cutting Edge: Into the New Millennium
June 23, 2000
Gates offers developers glimpse of Next Generation Windows
June 6, 2000
Windows Millennium nears release
May 25, 2000
Microsoft offers a peek at new operating systems
June 23, 2000

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