Windows Malfunction Edition
Written: Dec 06 '00 (Updated Dec 07 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good stability, fast boot-up and loading, ease of installation.
Cons: Takes up considerably more hard drive space, contains countless bugs.
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| _fate_'s Full Review: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Media Only) ... |
Review: Windows Millenium Edition
I have been using windows 98 for quite a while, and I am quite content with it. However, the change was inevitable. Rather recently, Windows Millenium Edition was released to the market, and my computer was in desperate need of a reformat. I decided to go ahead and give Millenium Edition a try. I can tell you right away that I didn't like what I saw. You may or may not agree, but this is what I have seen from my 2 days of use of Millenium Edition: It's filled with bugs. It seems that Microsoft was in somewhat of a rush to release this product, because there have been countless things that I discovered not to be working. As you know, operating systems are quite expensive to purchase, and from my doing so, I was a bit frustrated to have spent so much on something I don't use, or want to use (at least for now). After formatting my hard drive, I used my other computer to create a WinME boot disk. I popped in the boot disk and rebooted my computer. I must say that right from the start, I noticed differences in many things. The boot-up initialization drivers and such were improved, and worked quite well. The computer asked for my CD key and my preferences before installing and going through various reboots. I was actually amazed by the improvements made to Windows Plug and Play and detection. Various no-name brand components that I had, as well as the more popular names were instantly detected and installed for me. I didn't need to install a single thing, except the mouse drivers so that I could setup the scroll wheel to my own preferences. I'm not saying that the computer did not detect my Logitec Optical mouse. It detected and installed the software, but just didn't install the additional options so that I could setup the wheel to be a universal scroll. The fact that WinME simplifies installation is a huge help. I used to agonize over spending hours trying to get Windows 98 to detect and install drivers for my cheap modem.
Bugs and Errors:
Actually, Windows Millenium would have been my preference over Windows 98, except that the large amount of bugs deterred my confidence in this new release. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, or if they've released a patch to repair this, but I found that several buttons, some of which are important, don't do anything at all. The button is depressed, but with no results. I found this to be the case in many of the search options. When you hit Control + F, the small window pops up so that you can search within a page. You can type inside the prompt box, but clicking the button gets you nowhere. I found the find files or folders option to be the same. This is really important to me, since I often need the search option to find files, or to quick access them after I've misplaced them. If this option had worked, I'd be typing up my Epinions on Windows Millenium Edition right now. I also found many other bugs, but they were insignificant and many of which didn't matter whether they were there or not.
Improvements:
I've noticed that ME has a certain sense of stability. I've noticed that Windows Millenium Edition takes less time to boot up with all my software installed (I actually timed this with my watch). They must have fixed the memory leaks in the software. I noticed that my computer was a lot more stable. The computer hadn't crashed a single time, or given me a single fatal error or memory error in the 2 days time that ME was in use.
Conclusion:
I think that this program is relatively good in design, and stability, but the bugs make the program a hassle to use. I believe that this program will be better as they release patches and fixes (if they haven't already). I personally did not think this was the best operating system I'd ever met, but you may disagree. I could go both ways on Windows Millenium Edition.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
_fate_
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Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 53 members
About Me:
A student studying Computer Science, and obsessed with computers.
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