I was one of the lucky ones who got Windows Me final version early. In this review I will go from start to finish. Well let me tell you the features. Window Me has really cool features like Internet game playing, you can actually play Hearts, Solitaire, Checkers with other Windows me users, but you have to wait a long time before an opponent comes. I don’t know maybe, its because Windows Me is not yet everywhere.

Setup
When I got the CD I was really happy, I think that was one of the highest points associated with the purchase. (Note: WindowsMe is not yet available in stores, they will be available in September.) I put it into my computer, and the computer started the Setup. It took me longer then when I installed Windows 98. I only restarted the computer once! Unlike in Windows 98 (3 times).

First Boot
After an hour of setup, I finally start the computer. I see a white background with Windows Me logo on it. Personally I liked Windows 98’s picture better(Windows 98 logo with clouds in the background.)

Plug and Pray, woops I mean Play
Well I plugged and then I prayed, and it all turned out to be fine. Windows me found all the hardware, including sound, which Windows 98 had trouble finding.

I see Windows Me
Windows Me looks EXACTLY like Windows 98, and for that matter like Windows 95. I clicked properties to check out what kind of backgrounds they have, and I saw the coolest backgrounds ever. When couple days passed, I noticed that the background was one of the major upgrades since Windows 98.

Internet
I wanted to setup my dial-up networking, and to my surprise I couldn’t find the dial-up network when I clicked on ‘my computer’ I didn’t find dial-up. Then I clicked on the control panel, and there it was. So they moved it to the ‘control panel’ from ‘my computer’.

<the Shock
While I was in the control panel, I saw this screen. If you want to look at it click here
http://www.geocities.com/semenl/shock.jpg

If you saw it, and thought ‘where did other options go?? But then I saw it on the left side ‘it said view all Control Panel options.’

<the Games
They added new option ‘Internet Games’, this where you play against other Window Me users. The internet games are:
1. Internet Hearts- wait for 3 people to join, and you’ll be playing hearts.
2. Internet Checkers
3. Internet Spades
4. Internet Reversi
5. Internet Backgammon
What’s bad about these internet games, that you cannot chat with other opponents, you can only select from 20 or so phrases such as ‘nice move’, ‘I have to go’….

Desktop themes
The desktop themes no longer come as in Windows plus package, they came on my Windows Me!

Crashes
Same old crashes, 'illegal operation'messages have not gone away, and there's little improvement on amount of freezes, crashes, errors...

Overall
Overall this edition looked like Windows 98 edition three. I do not recommend buying this product if you’re a Windows 98 user, but I do recommend for upgrade if you’re a Windows 95 user, because it is just too old. Windows Me has not met my expectation, but still is a good operating system. The review only applies to home users, all other users should get Windows 2000( Upgrade to Windows NT)




Recommended: Yes