Hey guys, just thought I'd let you all know what I know about Millenium. I have a beta running on one of my boxes at work. So far the only minimum requirement is a 150mhz [ won't install if the processor is lower ] It's actually very stable in this early stage. It has alot of features equivellant to the look and feel of Windows 2000. I will admit that it looks nothing more than a suped up version of Win 98. Most of the changes I've noticed are thigns they should have done from the beginning - [ most notably is no more Blue screen scandisk when the computer crashes - if you unexpectedly crash out of windows, scandisk prompts you when you get into Windows. ]
Overall, I think if Microsoft keeps the price down, it is worth the purchase. Personally I just got my copy of Windows 2000 Professional and it rocks!

None of the script kiddy Linux users have posted their "STUPID NAME! LINUX RULES! M$ WINDOZE $UX!" crap yet.

You all need to stop whinning! Once this new ME version comes out, you'll probably be the first person in your neighborhood to have it too! I've about had it with people that complain about this OS and still go out and buy & use the s***! This is the only OS out there that even attempts to improve upon itself. So what if it crashes every NOW and THEN, you can expect this kind of behavior when you install other software into it's shell. Microsoft doesn't make these third-party programs! If you can't seem to find anything good about it, then why don't you take this tip from me: Un-install the f**k**g OS and try your hand with one of the others! I'll BET that you'll be whinning about them too in some other forum!

Well...
First of all, everyone should go out and buy this the day it comes out, it is a HUGE update.

Secondly...
I did not see one person complaining, what is your problem?

I don't know what your looking at but you need to review the threads Below DUDE! That might fill you in on my ... as you wrote "problem." And furthermore, if you got probs with the OS then the above thread refers to you as well! No more on the subject ... "find someone else to whine to!"

u forgot win95, so its win95,the 8th-duh.....

Well, I tested the beta 2 of Millennium and it looked like an improvement. For me, I use dos-based emulators so I like the fact that dos will still be part of Windows. I have other applications that use dos as well that I don't want to lose. Furthermore, for whatever reason my sound works with Win98 but fails on Win98 SE and Win Millennium. All I get on those two versions is a loud beating noise from my speakers. Anyone ever experience this or know what I should do? Thanks. ~HaWk

Sounds like Rocky VII to me!

Windows Millenium is NOT Windows 98 Third Edition. It's Windows 95 SIXTH Edition. Gawd.

Just because it wasn't such a huge change going from Win95 to Win98 as it was for going from Win3.1 to Win95 doesn't mean that there isn't a huge change. You should install Win95 OSR1, then install Millennium (or even Win98 1st Edition) and you will not believe the differences.

If you have all 3 variants of Windows, do you end up stuck in CEMENT?

CEMENT!!!

I love it! ;-)

Aaron a.k.a. Amir24

Windows Me, other than sounding stupid, is only a 98 upgrade in that it has enough 9x core to run the old drivers. In truth with the leave of 16 bit processing code replaced with 32 bit with translation, the addition of NT style memory locks, and Direct X 8 support Win Me is quite the slick product. It is designed for those who don't have a beheomoth Computer, don't need 64 megs of ram, or those hard core gamers who want to keep native platform for the first games of q3 this year. As Multi-processor support develops for games win 2k will kick more but. Stability in the NT style of 2000 is going to be another feature that will lure some to the bigger of the two OS's, as 2000 is much more stable than any of the OS's MS has released in the past. As point of fact I have only had ill effects from beta drivers, and legacy windows 3.1 apps, and some Virus scan issues. MS products scream, as do high memory requirement programs that pick up on the 20% boost in speed aquired by 32 bit drivers for accessing the memory handlers on the mother board.

Bottom line?
2000 for new computers
Me for legacy computers, Lap tops, and X-boxes.

...and my guess is that it still has the same old half-assed braindead I/O model instead of NT's asynchronous I/O. Until they get rid of that crap, the OS will always be crippleware because you can't have a Porsche with lawnmower tires.

In the many tests that have been conducted, Windows 2000 still has issues with stability/performance when it comes to certain applications and tasks. Direct X is a massive area of error in this product as well. That's what they get for violating a very fundimental design point for the NT product line.

Looks like they spent alot of time and effort on this :)
Why not something simbolic? Using a thesoras and combine words that mean "Final" and maby something to do with dos? here's an Idea: Win9x Final

Well...
There is no real-mode DOS, the only way you can get to DOS is from
1. A DosBox from within Windows (also called a command prompt)
or
2. With a bootdisk

Well, Windows 98SE is the Final OS written on top of a real dos layer. Windows Millennium does not have real dos anymore. Only a dos shell from within Windows.

Or by setting the BootGUI option in msdos.sys to 0
Then you can start windows by typing "win" just like the old days.

Contrary to popular belief windows 'me', will in fact still be based on the 98x kernal. Which means, still 16-bit, which means still an OS written on top of a real dos layer. basically the changes made from 98SE to Millenium is about as significant as win95B to win95C

Window ME? Someone has been watching too many Austin Power Movies!
Does it means that this version of Window is smaller and less complete than Win98? What are we suppose to say when we crash the system...Sorry! I've got a MINI Crash!

Actually that doesn't work...

Sorry for that, but that is not true. Windos 98 SE ist not the last Edition based aon 16 BIT DOS. Windows Millenium ist just lik WIN98 3rd Edition.
The reason for this ist based on an upcomming market in the so called "NEAR EAST" there are a lot of "old" 16 BIT Windows Applications that would not run within W2k.
The first System which ist not based on the 16bit DOS will be Whistler, which will replace Neptun.
I have testet Neptun which ist just like the Consumer Version of W2k, but does not hav an 16bit DOS Kernel anymore.

So forget Windows ME an migrate to W2k or wait till Whistler will come

crack a dictionary sometime...

Actually, the current builds of Windows ME run over DOS, but there is no "restart to MS-DOS" option when you try to shut down. It also ignores the autoexec.bat, config.sys, etc. It's on it's way to being DOS free, but as of now, it is not.

Im pretty sure the requirements for testing Neptune is being able to spell "is" properly. As for testing Neptune, you have to be a pretty high-up employee at Microsoft to be blabbing your opinions about it all over the internet.

the Windows 9x kernal is not 16-bit, it is full 32-bit. They had something called real mode which allowed 16-bit apps and drivers to work. DOS 7.0, the underlying version of DOS for Windows 9x, might have been 16-bit but Windows itself was every bit of 32-bit.

Hope they spent as much time on cleaning up Windows code as they did thinking up the name! :=]

No it's not.

Don't preach stuff you have no clue about. I am a beta tester for the product, I think I know what it is built on.
There is NO way to get to DOS anymore, other than a DOSBox from Windows or from a bootdisk, wich is actually DOS on a disk, has nothing to do with Windows and is used incase you really screw up.

I just wonder sometimes, if the new version of consumer windows is Windows Me then will the new version of Windows Ce be Windows Mini Me? =-D

No.. But seriously.. Why now Windows Mini Me!

Wow, it's truly amazing to see how many people pretend to know what they're talking about when they really have no idea. no offense to anyone in particular, just let me list some concepts that many of you seem to be confused about:

First of all, Windows 98 and 98SE are not _only_ minor updates to win95 (98 is NOT win95 5th edition). A lot of hard work went into those OS's, I should know, i beta tested all of them.

Windows Millenium is looking like a very well designed OS, however there IS still _some_ DOS left in it. There's very little, far less than in 98SE, however there is some 16-bit code buried beneath the _completely_ 32-bit Windows kernel. I may occasionally still refer to ME as DOS, but i do it mostly to differentiate from Windows 2000, which I often call NT. Both OS's are far more advanced than the names I relate to them, however these names clarify much confusion Microsoft created when it changed NT5's name.

Frankly I'm tired of people bashing Windows b/c they think they sound smart. Now if you want to compare them to something better like Linux or BSD, fine (if anyone mentions the Mac os you deserve an immediate flogging). Just don't bash them because they aren't perfect, or because you resent Microsoft's success as a company. That's also not being fair to the developers.

actually, last time I tried to install something that required DOS, Live!Ware 3 drivers to be exact, it gave my a blue screen and didn't finish the install, I haven't tried that on newer builds yet to see if they got rid of the blue screens, but that proves that there is no more DOS and that 16bit stuff rarely works.

In fact, there is only 1 16bit app that runs on Windows, nativly, and that is the message server

Windows 95 / 98 : A 32bit shell running over a 16bit DOS layer, originally written for a 4bit processor by a 2bit company that doesn't care 1bit.

:-)

I kinda think the Windows Whatever Edition name scheme is kinda borring. Why not just leave it Windows Millennium? It has a better ring to it. When MS released the next NT I think Odyssey would be a cool name even though MS tecnically scrapped the codename when it merged the Odyssey and Neptune programs into Whistler. Ah well.

Pay no attention to my horrendous Ohioan grammer and spelling :P

well be aware that traditional users wont have a clue what Windows Odyssey really is - they already made enough trouble with windows 2000 (it seems like upgrade of win98). I guess they wanted to lessen the gap between 98 & NT, and make it sound like win2k is more user friendly than NT - which it is, but it sure aint win98
1. it doesnt crash (as much)
2. lots of games - apps dont work and can mess up your win2k really bad, this aint first time users system, if it goes down, it stays there... anyway thats little bit off topic, but they would make easier for us just to name it NT 5.0 and Win 2000 (not millenium) and sure as hell not Win ME

----2. lots of games - apps dont work and can mess up your win2k really bad, this aint first time users system, if it goes down, it stays there... anyway thats little bit off topic, but they would make easier for us just to name it NT 5.0 and Win 2000 (not millenium) and sure as hell not Win ME
-----

Based on what beta Build did you expereince this with? I myself have successfully been able to run all my software and games. Btw, dont blame Microsoft for hacked video/hardware drivers, which is typically 80% of the problem with Win2k being hosed down. =) And if something goes wrong, there's always an option to repair your OS via recovery option within the Win2K cd. This particular feature helped me with Nvidias beta driver that nearly hosed my win2k system. When will I learn!

I think its interesting how many people are running Win2K even though it hasn't been released yet. Those that are actually legitimate beta testers usually have to sign a NDA. Yet everyone seems to know how win2k works and what it will work with. How many betas are out there and which are you referring to? How do you know that the software hasn't been tweaked before it went gold? I always thought it was designed to be a business OS, and microsoft has gone out of its way to point that out. Yet I am seeing posts from people complaining that their games won't work with Win 2K. Duh.

End of rant
Term

I think not. Windows is by far not a 9x type of platform. Its meant for networking and such. Although Compaq and other gay companies are putting Win2k in their new computers, its a bad move.

actually, games work perfectly fine, you just need to get drivers that support OpenGL and such, none of the video drivers, that I know of, that come on the CD support OpenGL

Actually you can get it through MSDN(even though I haven't gotten my cd yet) and the CPP newsgroup customers got it FREE Also all cpp customers could get it for $15(s/h). I myself being an newsgroup junkie got my 120 day trial free(haven't used it yet because of the speed of my old computer).

For your information, several companies who have signed with Microsoft for a upgrade path are already running Windows 2k in production. Yes, that's right, final version. This also means that the companies IT staff also gets a legal copy of the final version for use. Gotta love the company laptop. Gotta love working for a real company.

Games, in the general term, do not work perfectly fine. If you'd like, I'll be more than happy to provide you with specific events, but I really don't think I have to.