and I can't believe how much faster windows ME boots! its real fast! I think i might switch back to 98se due to all the projects being geared to 98 se...

Well, KernelEx works on Me, UberSkin works on Me, there is an unofficial service pack for Me too... What is there 98SE exclusive?

THe last pack for windows ME was made over a year ago...... WIndows 98 se is kept more up to date with the latest patches that they steal from 2k and xp

They don't steal anything... Besides, i could care less when it was updated if it does what i need it to. And it offers if not anything else, a very stable shell compared to 98SE with 98SE2ME.

I've never had a problem with Me!
It's really quite stable; so I cannot understand where in the world it's bad rep comes from.
I think it's most likely the problems with system restore, and system protection.
But most importantly, I find 98, and 98se's Dos access is what makes them superior to Me, from a control standpoint.

Also, I really love the Me interface, and design---clean and refreshing looking.

I believe also, that IEradicator, can remove Internet Explorer from Me, as well as Win 95, 98, and 98se----if one wants a really, really---clean PC!

Actually I quite liked ME too.

ME's bad reputation was earned, and well earned in my opinion, when it was first released. Not enough or not strict enough quality control is my guess. Naturally this has since been addressed and it's really rather stable now

This is false. IE is integrated into the shell.

System protection is usually the first thing i disable. And you can get pure DOS in WinMe as well so no problem with that. One thing that makes Me superior to 98 and 2k in terms of interface is having high-color systray icons - the 16-color ones look really ugly.

Yes, it's really stable, compared to XP you just have to close all applications and then give it a few seconds to settle before you click shut down, otherwise it hangs at shutdown and you have to reset the machine. Other than that, the only times i had it crash is when i was doing something wrong.

BenoitRen, I must say honestly, that in some way you're a bit irritating.

From http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html: "IEradicator is a tiny, script that uses the Windows setup engine to surgically remove Internet Explorer versions 3 through 6.0 from Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium and Windows 2000(sr1).

If you are one of the 70+% for which IE is the browser that floats your boat you can reinstall the version you prefer. If not, then you can bask in the inner glow of knowing you just secured your PC from all known and unknown, past and future, IE security bugs while claiming back 30+MB of closet space. Isn't it nice to have the choice?

The removal process is elegant with all COM servers politely being asked to de-register themselves from the system registry using their inbuilt deinstallation routines before being eliminated from the hard disk. IEradicator then pulls out the cleaning gear and gives the registry a good polish before returning control back to you. The MS HTML Engine (shdocvw.dll and mshtml.dll) is left on the machine to provide needed functionality for other applications that render HMTL (e.g. Outlook Express) or that launch a mini-browsing window (e.g. Winamp's Mini Browser, Netmeeting's Online Directory).

IEradicator now contains two versions. One version keeps all the web view shell integration intact, and the other takes all of that out for a lean and fast desktop environment. If you are hard-core, you can rid yourself of IE altogether using our great 98lite Professional."

I'm irritating for stating the truth? IE is integrated into the shell. explorer.exe and shell32.dll ARE IE by Win98. You can't avoid them unless you use a different shell. It doesn't look like IEradicator magically provides a new shell for you. Why do you think it's popular to use the Win95 shell on Win98 if you want to get rid of IE?

Also, if you leave MSHTML.DLL on the system, which undeniably is part of IE, you haven't fully removed it.

IMHO
Windows 98 was a rockstar. It was the Beatles of the information age. Masses of people lined up in the middle of the night on the day it was released. All the major news outlets covered the event.

98se was a service pack.

Then came the newcomer trying to de-throne the champion and everyone booed.

By the time ME was fixed and became stable the real succesor to the throne had appeared.

********************
I’ve read through online archives from the turn of the century and the ME bashing is everywhere. Suprisingly some of the writers back then complained that ME was too difficult to learn.

Well, there is one game I could never get to work on Windows ME, that really ticked me off and made me go back to 98SE. Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM. It's DOS-based, but it runs fine with the DOS from 98SE (and I don't even have to shutdown and restart in DOS mode). With Windows ME, I would always get a Stack Overflow error, no matter what I tried. Apparently this is related to how DOS on Windows ME runs in a sort of 'VM' environment and hardcodes certain environment variables to certain settings, without the ability to change them. MS KB article 274646 goes into some of the details.

DOS games have been always meant to be ran in pure DOS. But you are right, if there's one thing Me can't really do is run DOS games when under Windows.

Well, it's not just DOS games actually, that WinME has problems with. DOS apps too. I have a theory that it might be possible to modify dosmgr.vxd to change the default DOS VM environment variable settings, to make more DOS apps, including games, work. My theory is based on the dosmgr.vxd patch (kb274594) that MS released for WinME. That update increased the hardcoded environment variable for FILES= to the max of 255. So, quite possibly, someone could find a way to modify dosmgr.vxd to change some of the other hardcoded environment variables, such as FCBS, BUFFERS, and STACKS (where STACKS is the one that I believe needs adjusting in order for my precious Tie Fighter Collectors CD-ROM to work).

Interesting.... Try opening the file in hex editor?

DOS in Win9x always runs in a VM of sorts. It's not new for WinME.