Key Takeaways
- Windows ME combined DOS-based Windows 9x with NT kernel features, causing instability and compatibility issues.
- It lacked features from older OS, like Microsoft’s Personal Web Server and System Policy Editor.
- Despite marketing new features, Windows ME was highly criticized for its bugs, crashes, and poor performance.
Released back in 2000, the Windows Millennium Edition was a weird operating system. Its predecessor, Windows 98, was marketed as the last DOS-based Windows 9x operating system for home users. Despite its unstable nature at the time of its launch, the second version of Windows 98 was still going strong, and there wasn’t much of a need for another OS that relied on the DOS kernel in the consumer space.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s business-oriented clientele was satisfied with Windows 2000, an operating system based on the Windows NT kernel that debuted a few months before ME. For some reason, Microsoft decided to release a successor to Windows 98 that rocked some new features available in Windows 2000. Due to time constraints, Microsoft couldn’t implement the Windows NT kernel into the Millennium Edition of Windows and was forced to go with the aging MS-DOS. Unfortunately for Microsoft (and the company’s user base), the end result was a colossal failure that went down in history as the most reviled OS to grace desktops.
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3 Removing real-mode MS-DOS led to compatibility issues
Good luck trying to run old apps on Windows ME
As the year 2K approached, Microsoft knew that the DOS kernel was hitting its limits in terms of capability and performance. But rather than implementing the Windows NT kernel into ME, Microsoft chose to improve performance and reduce boot times on the new version of Windows by restricting access to real-mode MS-DOS.
What Microsoft thought was a simple fix turned into one of the biggest nightmares for users. By removing DOS mode, many older applications that required real-mode drivers couldn’t work properly. Sure, there were a handful of ways you could restore the MS-DOS functionality. But remember, this was an operating system geared toward home users who wanted a simple computing experience, not a long troubleshooting procedure requiring the installation of unofficial patches.
2 It lacked many features from older operating systems
One step forward, two steps back
At the time of Windows ME’s release, Microsoft boasted about the new System Restore, on-screen keyboard, System File Protection, and multiple other features. While the last two were derived from Windows 2000, a lot of useful features were missing on Windows ME.
Microsoft’s Personal Web Server wasn’t compatible with Windows ME, and the same holds for the System Policy Editor and the Windows Messaging Client. Heck, even the more basic utilities like Quick View and DriveSpace were nowhere to be seen on the successor to Windows 98.
1 Highly unstable and prone to crashes
Even installing it on a VM can be a real challenge
While the lack of certain functionalities wasn’t a deal-breaker for many, a bug-ridden OS that could crash at any moment definitely posed a huge problem for Windows ME users. When Microsoft attempted to merge the DOS-based Windows 9x OS with the new functions of the Windows NT kernel, the company failed to troubleshoot all the bugs and compatibility issues that popped out of this unholy combination.
Even months after the release of Windows ME, users would encounter crashes when setting up the OS. And that’s before you include the plethora of BSODs, freezes, and slowdowns that made Windows ME unusable for even computing experts. Heck, there was even a bug with the highly marketed System Restore feature, where the operation would fail if you attempted to use a restore point created after September 8, 2001.
All-in-all, Windows ME was so buggy that many users resorted to downgrading to Windows 98. Seeing as how infamous the Windows 9x family was for its crashes, the fact that users were willing to switch to older systems should speak volumes about Windows ME’s stability issues.
Windows ME: An incomplete OS that was more trouble than it was worth
Due to its unstable and half-baked nature, Windows ME attracted waves of unending criticism from the PC community. As a result, Microsoft released Windows XP, the first consumer-oriented OS based on the Windows NT kernel, a year after the release of the Millennium Edition.
Thanks to its superior performance, new aesthetics, and most importantly, higher stability, Windows XP was a sight for sore eyes. Within weeks of its release, it was heralded as one of Microsoft’s greatest OS – a title that it still holds to this day. Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to support Windows ME for a few years, though most of the user base had already moved over to the iconic Windows XP.
In the end, Windows ME died the most miserable death out of all Windows operating systems. And that’s quite an achievement, considering that the tech industry was blessed cursed with other highly despised OS like Windows Vista and Windows 8.