Windows Me: Why did it fail?

We all hate it but why? #WindowsMe

September 14, 2000. The Windows 2000 business operating system was already out but that day, they had brought a new successor to Windows 98. Its name?

Windows Millennium Edition.

Windows ME, as many journalists and Microsoft stuff pronounced it "Me", was a Windows 9x (if you do not know what 9x is, it is Windows versions that run on top of MSDOS) that was planned to be the last of its kind.

At a first look, Windows Me looked incredibly similar to its predecessors but on a closer look, it invincibly changed the world of Windows. It had new media options, the first backup and restore app, and it got rid of real DOS mode. But let's take it all step-by-step:

New Media Options in Windows Me: What was the change?

The most of the hype about Windows Me was about the new media options it provided. Windows Media Player 7 was supposed to be the new style of media players, upgrading the "boring" previous Windows Media Players and for a fun fact, it played Beck whenever you opened the app. Interesting. Also, there was a new Internet Explorer 5.5 and the Windows Movie Maker.

If you ever used a Windows Operating System before Windows 10 got rid of its Movie Maker, you probably saw the Movie Maker app lying around. Movie Maker was a really good app for making and editing movies, no matter what your editing skill was. Imagine Adobe Premier, but for noobs or not so expert people.

Those new apps sound very exciting for Windows Me but there's a catch. All of those apps were available for Windows 98...what's the point of Windows Me then?

Backup and Restore: Did it make Windows Me any better?

The idea of Backup and Restore is actually pretty interesting. "Save all your files in a convenient place, and if your computer goes through some kind of heart attack, you can restore all your lost files to that certain backed up point," was Microsoft's promise.

What's the catch?

The more you load up a computer, the more it slows down. If your computer is filled up and you backup that filled up computer, you would make its size duplicate. If you duplicate it? It slows even more down. If you make another backup? Guess what? It slows another so much.

For a first attempt at Backup and Restore, Microsoft did not really make stuff easy for the people who bought Windows Me. Windows XP would make the Backup and Restore way better.

The End of Real DOS: Was it a real deal-breaker?

Real DOS is when you can temporarily revert from Windows 9x versions to MSDOS (which the Windows 9x versions run on top of).

Most DOS programs could run on Windows Me but not all of them. Some of the DOS programs did not run properly on Me, and some others did not work at all.

Ways that people tried to combat that:

I)Downgrade to Windows 98.

II)Use a boot disk. Boot disks were floppy disks that Windows Me came with that once you put them in the Floppy Drive and boot the computer, the computer would boot to MSDOS instead of Windows Me. That would make every Real DOS program work on the computer with a few problems on sound.

III)Apps that modify Windows Me so it can run Real DOS.

Real DOS was supposedly hidden on purpose so people could move on to a new world of Windows. One that Windows XP would be introducing properly.

Other Minor Changes

The search function in File Explorer was another new feature that made finding stuff easier. New themes (most of them from Windows 98 Plus) were introduced in order to make the appearance of Windows more customizable. And also, boot times sped up.

Conclusion

Windows Me was not as bad as it was rumored but in the world of 2000, its new features were too early and caused a lot of instability and Blue Screens of Death. People mostly downgraded to Windows 98, moved on to Windows 2000, or waited for Windows XP that came a year later, in October 2001. If you gave Windows Me good drivers to work with, did not download whatever you see from the web, and avoid using clunky old hard drives, Windows Me may have had a better time. However, when it came out, it was not a well received Operating System and people have a sucky line of memories now.