just got WinME for free from Dell, should I install?

aUt0eXebat

Banned
Oct 9, 2000
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i have 98se, and i was wondering if i should install it or not, i have heard alot of problems with it.......
 

Dee67

Golden Member
Dec 14, 2000
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I have heard the same. I have a similar system to you and am also using 98se.. I have no problems at all with it. The only thing I hear good about ME is the fastboot thing.

Dunno if it helps or not, but I have no desire to make the switch based on all the things I've read.
 

MulLa

Golden Member
Jun 20, 2000
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I would suggest sticking to 98SE since ME is nothing but trouble and it's a real resource hog.
 

goldboyd

Golden Member
Oct 12, 1999
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if 98 is running smooth, dont change it. if you seem to be having a lot of os related issues, upgrade
 

Erasmus-X

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 1999
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I don't really like WinMe..........

I think that Microsoft really tried to make it too dummy-proof and they deleted a lot of useful advanced features that should have never been removed. If 98SE is running stably on your system, I recommend against upgrading. 98SE does everything you need it to do.
 

firehawk2

Banned
Dec 3, 1999
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ya same here..i have winme in my laptop and it really give errors ALOT and plus its not stable w. applications sometimes... the only pro is that it boots fast and thats it
 

Panther505

Senior member
Oct 5, 2000
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I guess that as a ME Beta tester I am really biased but personnally I would go with me (FLAME SUIT NOW ON). I have been running it both here and at work since it was in RC(Release Canidate) 1. I have been impressed with the stability of it on several homebuilt systems with nothing but the Stock drivers... If you got it from Dell with a driver CD(usually an OEM will send one only if it is needed) then I would install as Dell would have extensively tested ME with the system that they are sending upgrades on.

Understand that I know that a lot of people are having trouble with ME but I have not. Part of the issue with ME is that there are a lot of "Stupid People trying to kill the computer" settings that MS has implemented in try to "stupid proof" the OS. If you either set these to be minimally intrusive or disable them(ie system restore) then most people will see a stability and performance increase. I have yet to load a game or application that KILLS the system. Some have hurt it but nothing that I could not recover.

Finally- If your 98SE system is stable and you have no reason to upgrade and you cannot decide then I would suggest that you stay with the preloaded OS. Primarily because you know that Dell Service and Support will work with the preloaded OS and whether or not they will work with the upgrade even though Dell sent it to you is an entirely different issue(most support will tell you to backup your files and then reinstall the system).

Best of Luck and sorry for the RANT
 

Spuffin

Senior member
Aug 28, 2000
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I use Windows ME and am quite pleased with it. It rarely crashes and I don't have lots of driver problems like i had with Win2K. And even though it does crash at times, I can't say that it does so any more than *ANY* Win9x machine.
 

joshInAlaska

Member
Dec 19, 2000
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I'm a bit more 'puter savy than my wife, so when she purchased her Gateway, I helped by listening to the sales person talk about the components. I then told my wife to go ahead and get it since it sounded like a good buy. What I forgot to ask was which OS came with it. I assumed that it would have been Win98se, but WinME was a few weeks in the marketplace and was available for our new 'puter.
I'm totally disgusted by WinMe. Just about every time we go for shut-down, it goes to the blue screen. When online, our browser will occasionally crash and refuse to execute, unless we do a 'puter restart. What is the biggest perks of WinMe? Well, there is a nifty media player hampered with inconsistent performance. There is a built in digital movie editor, which creates MS file only movies (As usual, instead of being an innovator, like apple, MS follows their lead).
I do admit that there are some nice aspects of MinME, but I'd give it some time before I upgrade. It usually takes MS six months to patch the bugs from the initial release, so I'd give it until then to do so. In retrospect, I really wish that our machine came with Win98se (why is there a second edition? to fix the initial bugs).
I do envy the few fortunate people who's machines work smoothly with the ME OS.

- Josh
 

RayEarth

Senior member
Apr 15, 2000
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I have the retail version of winme, I installed it & had no problems, & now I'm running win98se again. Why would I be running win98se if I have winme with no problems? well the boot time from win98se to winme is not that big of a speed differience, winme does use more memory then win98, with win98 I have 601kb free conventional memory, but with winme I 580kb & winme doesn't have dos mode. When you play fighting games on your computer you will notice slowdowns alot & with win98se & winme both having the optimized settings, win98se so far hasn't once slowdown & try to access my hdd while I'm playing fighting games. Overall win98se & winme both are stable, but winme uses memory up faster, I have 384mb ram & it still feels drained when using winme.
 

Inbetween

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2000
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If you're an explorer type, like to tinker, know enough about win98 to be bored, and last but not least, like abuse, go ahead, otherwise; I think most everyone of these replies speak volumes in regards to experience of ME.
I went back to win98se.

good luck :D
 

LongTimePCUser

Senior member
Jul 1, 2000
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I have been running ME on 2 PCs for several months now. It is noticably more stable than 98SE. But I would recommend doing a clean install rather than upgrading Win98SE. Check for new drivers for video, sound etc.

If you go with ME turn off the very stupid "smart menu" feature.
 

NesuD

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,999
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I am with Panther 505. I didn't like it at first installed it as an upgrade and that went very badly. went back to 98se for a while and decided to do a clean install of Me this time to see if it would run better. It did do better this time but was behaving strangely still. After turning of or minimizing a lot of the idiot stuff that MS put in it including the system restore feature it is now running very well in fact I am liking it better than 98se. It is as stable as this system has ever been. If you don't mind tweaking out all the idiot proof stuff that MS put in it then it is worthwhile in my opinion.
 
Dec 18, 2000
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i agree with longtimePCuser, ME is great if 98 is giving you problems but if 98SE works for you stick with what works, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

Norssak

Member
Jun 27, 2000
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I personally see no place for ME, either at work or at home.

Win 2000 is great, the best of W98 and NT and then some

But what is up with ME? Same $hit different color?
ME is sooooo suck. W98 looks better, feels better and seems to crash a little less. The only angle I can figure is that if an OEM like Dell builds a stable image with all the little patches needed, then it would take Joe AOL Smith a bit longer to screw it up than under W98