Windows Me: The WORST Version of Windows

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Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me, was widely panned for being an unstable, buggy mess. Why was it so bad?
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[@BrentJohn]

You know an operating system is terrible when you can memorize the entire 25-character license key from installing it so many times.

[@JOHNWICK-5903.5]

Lmao

[@mica7191]

My OSes were: XP, 7, 8.1 and now 10

[@BrentJohn]

@@mica7191 Mine were MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, Me, XP, Vista, 7, 10, and 11. For some reason, by hard drive didn't like 8, so I skipped that one.

[@mica7191]

@@BrentJohn hum... I might consider 11 as well... with registry edits... got an i5-4460

[@waltciii3]

@@BrentJohn DOS 6.22? I also tried OS2 for a week.

[@Gravion2k4]

Windows ME was the bain of my existence as a 13 year old. Dealing with ME and its mountain of issues taught me a great deal of IT skills I'd never needed with 98SE, lmao.

[@Get-Rekt]

Same, it's just that I'm most probably a bit younger than you xD

[@CotyCondry]

same

[@chafarlefeu]

Lmao same story as many Linux users, different conclusion x)

[@KingSteven77]

I have had a similar situation but with hardware instead of software, I used to have this old PC from 2007 that was absolute garbage, the computer was litteraly almost the same age as me since I was born in 2006. Dealing with that computer taught me a lot about hardware and sometimes I kinda miss it haha. It made me love working with computer hardware and now I plan on going to college and do some Computer Hardware Engineering

[@the_kombinator]

I had ME as a teenager - on a Pentium 60 with a VESA card and a Maxtor hard disk. 12 Mb RAM too. That was sooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!

[@Barot8]

ME did stink on ice. XP was great because it was bug fixed very fast and Microsoft actually paid the beta testers they used rather than use customers as beta testers.

[@tomppeli.]

And now people adopting W11 are the unpaid beta testers History repeats itself or something along those lines

[@g_pazzini]

Agreed. ME is so terrible.. My favs are XP, 7, 10

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

XP was only great compared to ME. In hindsight it was pretty bad too until SP2.

[@deltadom33]

Yet they have got rid of all the testers for windows 10 and 11

[@Mr.Morden]

Windows Me was a startling success compared to Windows 3.x. It would run out of x86 segmented 16bit DOS memory because it was x86 segmented 16bit DOS memory. Any application that used a lot of memory made it so that you needed to reboot more often. Heavy tasks like development, database management, complicated office documents, etc etc... It's why I used the DOS AOL client as a kid. Few people knew about the DOS AOL client and even fewer still actually used it, but since it was based on the little known GEOS desktop environment libraries it ran silky smooth and stable. Literally the only reason Windows 3.x became popular is because Microsoft had a great marketing and licensing program to get it to ship with OEM PCs.

[@matthaeussolinvictus3852]

I had Windows ME as a child, I had fun clicking around and playing with some pre installed games, screensavers, themes etc. My first real games were Project IGI, Max Payne and The Sims.. I have good memories even though Max Payne gave me nightmares haha. But I'm sure the IT savy people of then disliked Windows Me.

[@shoego]

Omg! Project IGI? I remember that game!

[@moart87]

Good times!

[@prufrockrenegade]

My family's first computer was a Gateway running ME when I was a kid. Even though we knew pretty much nothing about computers when we bought it, we all learned really quick how to boot into safe mode and do system restores, because the OS would fail catastrophically about once or twice a month and that was the only way to fix it haha. My dad has always been super cheap, but he gladly bought a whole new machine with XP on it just a year or two later and we put that Gateway on the curb with no regrets. In retrospect we probably would have been fine just downgrading it to Win98, but none of us knew how to do that at the time

[@this.is.shashwat]

@@shoego they are coming back with new igi game titled origins after 20 years

[@judenihal]

Some of the computers in my school ran Windows ME, and students logged onto their user accounts from a domain. They were slow because the laptops were sluggish, but the operating system did the job. There was no issues with Windows ME in a corporate environment other than it not being on the NT kernel. I also have a Dell Dimension 8100 which runs Windows ME pretty well. The moment we upgraded to Windows XP Home Edition, the computer started crashing and none of the DOS applications functioned. Oh, and the Home doesn't have the ability to log into a domain which is absolutely unacceptable.

[@UncertaintyPopsicle]

Windows ME and trying to play aoe2 on the MSN gaming zone in grade school is why I learned how computers work. I probably wouldn’t have the career I have today if it worked without issues. Thanks Billy!!!

[@myk1_sp]

Billy Coore from The Nostalgia Mall?

[@mica7191]

Been wondering how would it be if I paired my Celeron E3400 with a lower end GPU... instead of a GMA X4500 onboard granny

[@moldyoldie7888]

@@myk1_sp No, the Billy who got pied.

[@ironic5790]

Windows 98 will forever be jank but will ALWAYS have a place in my heart as the first OS I used and the start of my interest in computers!

[@carltonleboss]

Use 98SE people.

[@_invencible_]

@@carltonleboss thanks. I'll keep that in mind if i ever wake up in 1999

[@InfernosReaper]

98SE had the flash drive support that ME's being credited for, so it wasn't *that* bad

[@tehguitarque]

@@carltonleboss Lmao I also remember 98SE having a much better reputation, to the point where people would compare it to windows XP (they were wrong).

[@felipekfcosta]

Windows 98 SE was very decent for its time. People like to repeat what they hear on youtube, especially younger ones who didn't even use it when it was around.

[@championxxlNL]

Fun fact a lot of blue screens came because developers had to manually clear old data from the ram if they didn't do this the pc would simply run out of resources and crash. Bluescreens were partly Microsoft fault but could also be due to bad software design from third-party apps you were using

[@livinMicro]

this is way above "home users" understanding like IE5 from '99 allowing all that HTML5 can now do like text shadows and image mirror that W3C allowing netscape(lol), chrome, and opera in window7 to finally do what windows 98 could do... IE5 and free geocities websites allowed things people are just now getting back into with web design today... ActiveX filesystem access, DirectX css filters, css expressions, java applets, etc allowed way more in a browser than we can do now...

[@gabmandoo]

I'm one of those who have fond memories of Windows ME. Maybe i was one of the lucky ones, but I never considered it to be more buggy than other versions of the Windows that time. So I never regretted to pirating it.

[@licksludgee]

I had a pretty rough experience compared to 95 at the time but It's actually ridiculously solid on more modern hardware, I've got a circa 2004 pentium 4 3.0ghz HT that still runs ME flawlessly, it's the oldest shit I got that still supported ME out of the box. Awesome for 16 bit games

[@jamesstewart5005]

ME worked great for me as well. It's the only version I ever purchased. At least it until the days of cheap gray market OEM licenses.

[@abhimaanmayadam5713]

I liked ME too. I had a pentium 3 laptop that ran it pretty well.

[@jaanikaapa6925]

I liked ME too. Never had a problem with it.

[@Get-Rekt]

#MEtoo

[@MageThief]

I have used every OS that Windows "shipped", basically upgrading as soon as they were launched. I have now a high-stress tolerance. 😄

[@theFLCLguy]

Windows ME also had a bug that it wouldn't actually delete certain temporary files but would say they did. So at some point your hard drive would get full and cause there system to become unstable. I had to reformat yearly because of it.

[@blunderingfool]

I have that same issue in Windows 10. Have to manually delete everything in the temp folder to improve log-in\loading times.

[@mrw40]

This video brought ME some awful nostalgia, it even teared my eyes bringing back the memories of how I had to summon task manager as soon as the OS loaded, in order to close programs and rubbish that started for no reason at boot, XP was like a bucket of ice in the middle of the Sahara, and I kept it for so long that when I finally stopped using it, I moved to 7

[@dougadams9419]

Windows XP Pro 64 bit was the all around best OS, IMO. Unfortunately hardware and software companies quit supporting it when the next version of windows was released. I ran XP for close to 15 years before I had to abandon it for lack of support, not only from MS, but everybody else. The nVidia GeForce GTX 950 was the last video card to support XP. It's still in may backup computer, but now running Windows 10.

[@tihzho]

I knew an engineer that still uses Windows 95 BETA (!) on an vintage PC. This goes hand in hand with many engineer's websites which look uber 1990's.

[@netsendjoe]

Who else remembers NewShell for Windows 3.1 that made 3.1 feel like 95?

[@QueenSaffryn]

I distinctly remember trying to run windows me on my own PC back then, and seeing the cursor hop across the monitor like it was a slideshow, that was enough for me to never try it again >

[@carltonleboss]

It didn't differ from 95 and 98 that much, did it?

[@Satarras90]

@@carltonleboss hardware/software constant failures, and not recognizing simple things was horrendous+alot of people had lots of mouse stutter. Reinstalling it multiple times actually fixed some driver issues for some people I knew at the time, and if they needed help we would do a backup and full reinstall till some drivers would just start working, lol. Sometimes there was no way around it.

[@TheCunningStunt]

@@carltonleboss It had 'system restore' which previous windows did not have. I found that was the cause of nearly 100% of any issues I had. Disable system restore and any performance issues and errors disappeared. Wish I had an old PC and ME so I could make a video on this. Because I've not seen a single "ME BAD" videos by 'tech experts' ever cover this. Probably because many of them these days don't look old enough to have ever actually used it themselves lol.

[@Javikazi]

WIndows ME was the main reason I forced myself to understand at least the hardware aspect of a PC. Glad to figure out more RAM helped.

[@ShadowGirl-]

I had a good time with ME. Having lived through all the versions, the worst was actually 95. It wasn't uncommon to have to reinstall windows each month because of how messed up it would get.

[@Flytrap]

I worked in Tech Support during the ME days. We had an entire floor of software folks working on solutions to keep the thing stable enough for people to use it. I ran it with few issues, but I did breathe a BIG sigh of relief when XP launched. I actually beta-tested XP and liked it so much, even in beta, that I ditched ME.

[@Davethreshold]

Good to know. Yes, XP was fanTASTIC!

[@NourMostafa_Productions]

How were the unleaked Whistler builds like?

[@NourMostafa_Productions]

@@jhj681 the commenter literally said that he was Beta-Testing XP. Wdym?

[@bchristian85]

Did that exact thing with Vista. Ran the 7 beta starting in early 2009 because it ran so much better than Vista on the same hardware. Prior to that, I had given Vista every shot I could before finally reverting to XP.

[@modimihir]

I used Me a lot, upgrading from 95 & 98. Never faced issues more than previous versions and actually really enjoyed using it. Never understood why it got so much hate.

[@judenihal]

People have hardware which wasn't compatible with Windows ME. Also booting into DOS was removed. My Dell 8100 worked fine with Windows ME. It started becoming terribly unstable when we upgraded to XP Home.

[@tankerd1847]

I was a preteen when it came out, but I remember system restore was an absolute gamechanger with Windows in that era.

[@johnDingoFoxVelocity]

You're forgetting the fun one did you ever wonder why Windows me got the nickname windows many errors as a joke it's because several problems were occurring one being that if you turned on any smart Drive features in Windows me that it would corrupt the hard drive and crashed the NTFS partition

[@ronny332]

In my eyes, Windows me wasn't that bad. I was already on my ongoing Linux journey, but Windows me was my gaming base. The try to hide DOS was silly (it was still "under the hood"), but in my memory the bluescreens wheren't worse than Windows 9x.

[@sinax8283]

I had a rock-solid Windows ME slot A system - still one of the best systems I ever built, only got replaced for Half Life 2. A lot of people just sucked at building boxes back then. How could I tell? Softmodems everywhere.

[@TheCunningStunt]

Same problem today. 98% of people using PC's have no idea what they're doing. You could apply that to almost all tech. Even the 'pro-gamers'. Anyone can build a new pc now, but still very few go beyond the basics. Back then shit wasn't so plug n play. The trick to Windows Millenium was to disable system restore. Had a Pentium 133 16mb ram and 2 Voodoo 2's in SLi and it benchmarked better with WIndows ME than it did with 98 after I turned off system restore which really seemed to slow the system down.

[@judenihal]

@@TheCunningStunt That's good information to know, thank you for mentioning this!

[@PuroEnjoyer]

Just wait until people remember that windows 1.0 didn't even have moveable windows

[@abykuruvilla]

My first pc I bought from a guy who worked at a bank and he salvaged the parts from that bank of systems that didn't meet the requirement to be auctioned off i.e they were bricks. The bank used it for like 7 years. I bought it for 5 dollars. Had 256 MB SD ram (two 128 mb sticks), Pentium 4 (single core), 20 gb hdd, 16 inch CRT.with internal modem and video card. This was in 2008 😂

[@StaySic4Ever]

I remember switching from older ones to XP quite a difference, I remember adding extra RAM improved OS alot.

[@eonizen]

Idk, I've went through all those and Windows 11 is currently winning for me now as the worst Windows ever...

[@dan_loup]

ME is still worse, but 11 have many "features" that you would only find in machines infected with malware back then.

[@BeautifulAngelBlossom]

Windows 11 is Just as a good as Windows 10 even better in some aspects

[@Wreighn]

I used ME when I was young. It was my second OS after 98. It was perfectly fine. I rarely ever got a BSOD, and never had any driver issues.

[@smugshrug]

Windows ME would just lock up randomly for me all the time. I had anywhere between an hour to 5 minutes to do whatever I wanted to do before it would freeze. Going from ME to XP was the best day of my young life.

[@edwardallenthree]

I was one of those who downloaded test versions of Windows 95. It was amazing, especially when paired with Netscape Navigator, the hot new version of Mosaic and a 57.6k modem. Four years later, it was time to go to Windows 2000.

[@prayagsuthar9856]

you mean.....56.6K?

[@tihzho]

I somehow missed Win ME, Win 98 and Windows 8. I had Win 3.11, 95, 98SE, Win 7 and finally to Win 10. I did have Vista on a DELL laptop but it seemed fine for me. Windows 11? NOPE.

[@Taijifufu]

I knew immediately this would be about Windows ME. I never tried it, but I will always remember it for all of the games and software that specifically did not support ME. And how fast it was swept under the rug in favor of XP.

[@leighonigar]

We didn't have any trouble with windows Me, but it was absolutely slammed at the time. Maybe it was fine for us because we only ran it on one new machine and made few demands of it. I did a double-take on the win 98 se system requirements mentioned in this video though - by the time it came out a 486 DX2 would have felt ancient. I wonder if anyone ran it successfully on such hardware.

[@remo27]

They were still making cheap laptops with 486 processors until 1998 or 1999. The 486 lasted alot longer than many people think, maybe in part because uptake was slow when it first arrived in 89 and then even though the Pentium came around in 1993, many people found 486 systems a cheap upgrade from their 286 and 386's , whereas the Pentiums were initially expensive and also buggy. Also the internet in the 1990's was slow, mostly static pictures and didn't push anyone's PC unlike the modern web.

[@mastigoz]

You have to consider back then if you had a computer in your home, programs bugging out or crashing were a fact of life. You learned to work around what made your PC crash and you knew technology wasn't perfect but you where lucky to be in the cutting edge. Besides if you had a pc and wanted a GUI you had no choice, it was either Win9x, rolling back to 3.1

[@mattsword41]

you could buy win2k - worked really well. less game support though most worked fine, and for those that still needed dos, could dual boot with a small Win9x partition. Win2k was a great os :)

[@jimmyrichards5595]

I ran Rad Hat Linux 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2 back then. Want a GUI? I was able to get XFree86 working(X Windows), but I don't think I got it working until about a year after I started using Linux. So, 1998. Back then not too many had X Windows up and working, but it was certainly possible!

[@jamesmonschke747]

They used to say that the "95" in "Windows 95" stood for the amount of the code that was complete when they shipped it.

[@Jakeysnake918]

Win 8 is my most hated version.

[@cerealport2726]

mine too, and I still have to use it because some systems at my workplace run it...

[@shingofan]

The one thing I remember from when I had a Windows ME system as a kid was how often the thing hung on startup. Lord knows if it was the OS or something else.

[@jimmyrichards5595]

It was probably something else. If you installed MS Windows, AND NOTHING ELSE, there wasalmost always no problems. But usually the reason you install Windows is because of some other software that you want to install and run. After installing some other programs back then, I could boot up Windows 95 and sit there and watch it for two minutes, and it would just crash... all on it's own. Then again, it wasn't exacly all on it's own, it was because of another program that was running in the background. But this program was supposed to have been made for Windows 95! It was enough to make me pull my hair out. I moved over. I moved over to Red Hat 5.0, 5.1, and then 5.2. After that I was a Debian Stable guy for many years. Now I run Garuda Linux and Debian Siduction.

[@ccoder4953]

One funny thing is, last I looked, the few people still trying to run Windows 98 will sometimes replace DLLs with ones from ME because the ME ones are supposed to be more compatible or have bug fixes.

[@TheCunningStunt]

I'll say it as many times as I can. Windows Millenium was waaaaay better than 98 and previous Windows. Once you disabled the new at the time system restore. See it still today, every time a new Windows come out the peasants who don't know what they're doing instantly hate on it because 'reasons'. Reasons being new things are scary and people don't bother to read manuals and learn how to use the tech they use.

[@greggv8]

Look for the Maximus Decim USB drivers. He took the WinMe USB drivers, put them in an installer for Win98SE. With that installed, any USB device that just works in WinMe will do the same in 98SE. Someone else did the same to make the WinMe USB drivers work in Win98 original, but who wants to run that garbage? 98SE was far better.

[@ccoder4953]

@@greggv8 I've used those. Extremely useful. Flash drives when they first came out were rather a pain to use on Win98 since you couldn't use the flash drive to transfer the driver (for that specific flash drive, no less) to the machine and Win98 didn't have built in drivers (probably predates the device class spec). So, you needed some other way to get the driver on the machine so you could use a flash drive. In particular though, I was referring to MDGx's "KILLER REPLACEMENTS: ME → 98 SE". It appears Windows ME had lots of components that got bug fixes and improvements. And those can be grafted onto Win98se.

[@greggv8]

@@ccoder4953 I'd like to find old software called 3D FAX. It could encode any file to a series of 2D "barcode" TIFF images then FAX them. The recipient could get them with a modem and 3D FAX could decode direct from the images or if the recipient had a FAX machine the printouts could be scanned. Computer files could be stored on paper in a file cabinet.

[@ccoder4953]

@@greggv8 I'm sure you could find that on some abandonware site, but, honestly, why would you want to? The data density of something like that is going to be absolutely awful. We're talking filing cabinet to store a CD type stuff. I get you might want some sort of long term archive. But, if it's text, just print out the plaintext. That should be readable as long as the paper and ink doesn't degrade. If it's data, properly stored tapes can have quite good lifetimes. There's also this thing called Millenniata or M-disk. If you believe their accelerated life testing, they are supposed to have very long lifetimes (hundreds of years). They need a special writer, but can be read in any normal drive.

[@perfectionbox]

Windows 8 was truly skippable... a textbook case of vendor ego and selfishness

[@cameronbosch1213]

ME for sure. The best thing you can hope for is for no BSODs and a stablish system. Second place is Windows 11 and its Spyware and locked down specs, unless you want to risk losing updates.

[@NAMDAM12345]

me could agree but 11 is not 2nd worst - you probably havent used 98 and Plung and Pray when bluscreens where normal everyday activity

[@starx2212]

the specs are probably to stop people running Windows 11 on their core 2 duo laptop from 2007 and complaining about how slow it is

[@mukyumukyun]

who cares about the worst, all of them are worse than the windows 7, the best windows of them all yet, but vista is considered the worst for me personally because the specs jump from the prev version is the most notable one, and it changes my favorite pipes screensaver to a bunch of drunk person riding tron bikes that lags my pc, and a lot of crashes on my system

[@khalilrahme5227]

@@mukyumukyun windows 7 is amazing, although I would say 10 is the best when it comes to UI/UX or customer experience.

[@mhammadalloush5104]

I'd agree more if you said windows 10, compared to 8.1 the then new start menu was awful (looks wise and somewhat usability wise) in comparison to the start screen and live tiles really only shined on Windows 8.1, on Windows 10 they were just blobs of whatever theme color you chose

[@BenMarvin]

Ah yes, Jackery. That room that rich people have in their houses dedicated to a specific activity. "If anyone needs me, I'll be adjourning to the Jackery for the next 20 minutes"

[@Google_Does_Evil_Now]

Windows ME launched with Windows 2000 (NT 5, the version just before XP). Windows 2000 was rock solid. 2000 was aimed at Pro/business, ME aimed at home users. To be fair to Microsoft they were on a roll with 95, 98, 98SE and then 2000. 4 operating systems, 1 every 1-2 years, and with genuine improvement with each version. They was also when office would also genuinely improve with each version. Linus Group, maybe have a look at what changed at Microsoft around this time to totally ruin software advancement there. It became a sluggish mess after this period, imo.

[@cerealport2726]

I remember Win2K used to say "built on windows NT Technology", which always made me smile, as NT was "New Technology". Nothing like New Technology Technology...

[@nerdegem]

Windows ME stood for "Might Explode" at any moment. Using it - BSOD. Looking at it - BSOD. Wind blowing in the wrong direction - BSOD.

[@BenjaminWagener]

I can definitely support this judgment. I friend of mine had a PC with Windows ME and I had a lot of "fun" making it run again and again. On my own PC, I switched from Win 98 to Win 2000 instead.

[@chunkyg6715]

I remember a PC I bought back in 2000 came with Windows ME. BSOD multiple times a day every day, even after being reinstalled on a monthly basis. I going assume Microsoft’s strategy with this atrocity was “this OS hasn’t gone past the software development alpha stage but let’s release it anyway”. Also remember system restore stopped working sometime in 2001 so I just turned it off. Not long after that before Windows XP was released.

[@TheGameBench]

Windows ME... zero question. They didn't even try to fix that pile of crap. They just killed it off and pretended it never happened. I ended up using Windows 2000 after 98SE, but I didn't have an option since I was running a dual CPU setup at the time.

[@ReValveiT_01]

2000 was great.

[@kalark]

Our family computer growing up had ME and honestly I didn't think it was that bad. Ignoring the fact that my cd writer would cause random BSOD's due to driver conflicts lol ah memories.

[@John7No]

I actually don't remember a time that i had blue screen or something similar with Windows Me. Probably the exception but still...

[@marvins.5656]

Pretty much the same on my Siemens Nixdorf Laptop with ME (except if I did something stupid ofc)

[@ChristopherCobra]

ME was a hybrid between 9x DOS series and NT. So, folks developing hardware for NT and 9x were lost. I had a scanner that worked fine in 98 and XP - but never worked on ME. Worst part was it was not needed. 98SE released Q2 1999 - XP released Q4 2001. ME was q3 2000. Man...memories.

[@InfernosReaper]

Yeah, ME was a complete waste of time and money for *everyone* involved, even Microsoft. 98SE was a fairly solid OS by the time ME came out and could've carried people with minimum updates until XP came out and then a little beyond that.

[@IlMemetor72]

ME was strictly 9x.

[@vascomanteigas9433]

ME was a small upgrade of 98 SE. One of hidden complains was the MS-DOS 8.0 that bootstraps ME. This version disabled real mode drivers support, which was present on 98 SE and earlier. Real DOS support for certain software and hardware was the Key feature of Windows 9x branch. Without it, they becomes useless, since NT and 2000 was for legacy-free environment.

[@BlazeOGlory]

The only 2 versions of Windows that I have used that I actually like are 8 and 11. 8 because it looked better to me and 11 because it looks the most UNIX like but it runs the programs that I use. Overall Mint I my favorite OS.

[@notjustforhackers4252]

The history of Windows. Bad before Windows 7, bad after Windows 7. Done, that was quick.

[@hubertnnn]

You forgot bad Windows 7

[@Wakefieldneo]

When I was a kid my dad had setup our computers to dual boot ME and 2000. You know, 2000 was much more stable and stuff, but it also lacked the compatibility to play a lot of the games I wanted to. XP mixing the compatibility and stability was great and it's a shame that Microsoft's failed to deliver such an immense improvement in a new OS since.

[@marciusnhasty]

I just went back to 98SE. After that I used Win2000 SP4 for gaming until WinXP SP1. SP4 allowed DirectX installation.

[@namesurname4666]

I guess you had cracked windows 2000 since it wasn't for home users

[@advokatie]

@@namesurname4666 would simply be impossible to use a professional OS at home

[@jet1589]

Yes 95 was light years ahead of 3.1 (98 was a small upgrade), XP was light years ahead of ME and 95/98 Windows 7 was light years ahead of XP, Vista and 8 forget about it lol. Windows 10/11 is good but not as revolutionary as Windows 7 was and I still miss AERO.

[@Mr.Plant1994]

Our family computer was a windows me growing up. We had it for 7 years and it was a great computer the whole time. That being said we had a very high end computer and I’m sure we were still the exception rather then the rule

[@Daggett1122]

My first PC had Me preinstalled. I mostly used it as a gaming PC and for web browsing, and honestly I didn't have too many issues with it. I remember having trouble getting a no-name sound card working, but that's about it.

[@ArniesTech]

In fact I have quite fond memories of ME and Vista 😁

[@Tpavra]

The problem with Windows ME is not the operating system, its the end user messing around with drivers/dodgy programs etc. I ran ME perfectly fine, seldom crashing for 6 years before upgrading to XP.

[@ScottGrammer]

I was foolish enough to pay over $100 for a full retail, boxed version of ME. I backed up everything, wiped the drive, and installed it. As I began installing drivers, I discovered that there was no ME driver for my $400 Epson Stylus 700 photo printer. I installed my regular Win98 driver, and it would not work. I called Epson support, and as soon as the words "Window ME" came out of my mouth, the guy on the phone said, "Oh." I asked if there was an ME driver, and he said no. I asked when they would have one, and he said they would not be supporting ME. Shocked, I asked why not? He said, "Keep using it, you'll see." I went back to 98SE in about two weeks.

[@blueskyblackthunder]

Don't agree. Windows Vista was the worst one. Used it only for an hour perhaps. But used win me for years.

[@cousinjimmy2638]

I was a Dell technician during the era where Windows ME was still relevant and XP was starting to take over. Any Windows ME call was guaranteed to last 1 hour +. Never failed.

[@smiddy0000]

My worst windows experience is Windows Vista, didn't had much trouble with Windows ME at all.

[@MrRichBenn]

I was at Microsoft the day they released “me”. During a break, they had a room with name brand vendors like HP displaying their computers running it. I was able to crash two of them in under 5 minutes. We all knew it was a disaster waiting to happen.

[@justsomeperson5110]

It's been a few years and even back then the explanation may not have been 100% accurate? But... The scoop was that besides all of that (which is bad enough) MS was trying desperately to get rid of 16-bit code. ME fell into a weird experimental midpoint in that process where MS tried to implement workarounds to support 16-bit drivers and code with a purely 32-bit kernel but without sandboxing, like was done in the NT kernel. As a result, the more 16-bit drivers you had on ME, the more likely you'd encounter a bug in this hastily conceived attempt by MS to purge all things 16-bit from the kernel without actually dropping 16-bit support. (Which was why ME didn't just use real mode DOS like 9x.)

[@sephirothbahamut245]

I was extremely lucky back then. The vast majority of Windows ME issues came from poor drivers, but I somehow happened to have all the hardware that was fully supported, and never had the bad experience the entire world talks about. I guess Olidata made a ton of validation in the hardware choice before selling their PCs

[@minecrafter0505]

Windows ME was my first OS. From 2006 to 2009, so I always had my Mum's XP laptop to show me how bad my OS actually was. Probably the reason I learned so much about tinkering with every possible setting, commandline and Registry editor. At some Point my Pre-Installed MS-Paint turned itself into a DOS program, stopped working and never worked again, not even after doing one of those fancy Restores. ME was also the reason I got into Linux very early, asking my dad to get me something that was more reliable when using Word, he installed Edubuntu with Openoffice for me.

[@sigen7053]

Started out in my early years with MS-DOS 6.0 and Windows 3.0. Was highly into computers for 15 years, then i sold my then Windows 95 PC and lived without a computer for many years. When i got back into it, i was stright on Windows 7. So i dodged both 98, ME and Vista. So my worst will be Windows 8.

[@DupeFortGaming]

I never saw any commercials for the OS and live in a non-English speaking country so I had absolutely no idea it was supposed to be pronounced "me" instead of "M.E." until today.

[@DrToonhattan]

I have never heard anyone call it 'Windows me' before, it has always been 'M.E.' What crazy universe have I fallen into?

[@BrianReinicke]

I had this bizzare unicorn of a PC that was not only a Gateway, but a Gateway running Windows Me that got me though college running Adobe, Ms Office, and Warcraft 3 without a problem. I eventually got around to installing XP, but it was mostly out of curiosity than necessity.

[@LendriMujina]

Talking about ME keeps ending up sounding like someone insulting themselves with bad grammar.

[@pietermonnier]

ME was awful, slow, and everything broke or stopped working when me and my friends upgraded. What a nightmare that OS was. I was 23 in the retail tech sector then; working at a custom computer store. I built my first computer in my mid teens in the mid 90’s and I used to say “Man, if i can’t figure this out, what’s happening to regular consumers?” 😅

[@JonathonV]

Yes, Windows "Mistake Edition" was listed as #4 on PC World's list of "Worst Tech Products of All Time". My grandmother had it, and Volume Shadow Copy kept overwriting system files, thereby cannibalizing itself.

[@azuresfd_lol]

You can't have an XP without breaking some Me's... And you can't have a Vista without upgrading your computer.

[@cbrawlb]

I remember when we went from DOS to ME. It lasted less than a year before our computer crashed for good. Lasted like 2 months before it started to throw fits. I'm also one of those unique ones that actually enjoyed Windows 8 quite a bit.

[@jmalmsten]

ME has the honorary position of the best error message I have ever seen. Freely translated from the swedish distributed installation, it read: "Unknown caused errors in Unknown. Closing Unknown."

[@BenjaminCronce]

I thought this was going to be a bash on Win11 and I was already thinking, "No way worse than ME, that crashed all the time"

[@valramos2003]

Windows ME was fine for school work. It was also the same time when OS X started its “It just works.” monicker because all the drivers you generally needed were already included in the OS.

[@henryca03]

That, and MacOS then and now is a closed ecosystem, and Apple optimized their OS for the architecture in use (Motorola 68K from its introduction in 1984 until 1993, PowerPC from 1994 to 2005, Intel from 2006 to 2020, and the current ARM-based Apple Silicon).

[@RobBulmahn]

Windows Me was infuriating. There were a few neat features, but the thing that always sticks with me were the MULTIPLE BSODs per day.

[@Gatorade69]

Yeah it would BSOD just listening to music in Windows Media Player.

[@OVERKILL_PINBALL]

This video is wrong about ME being because the NT kernel wasn't ready yet... it was, and it was called WIndows 2000 and came out around the same time as ME.

[@ESDI80]

I remember when a friend of mine built a new PC and was all smug about it. He installed Windows Me on it and it blue screened soon after he started installing the drivers. I really enjoyed seeing his, “I’m better then you!”, computer crash and burn!

[@gunsunnuva8346]

I find it real hard to get over how bad ME was. I had it in 2000, and it crashed literally every day, multiple times a day. Crashing was its core functionality. I went to college with it and lost my whole hard drive in a particularly bad crash. It was devastating. There should have been lawsuits. Big ones.

[@greyareaRK1]

I'm amazed they actually made NT without the horde of little Ceasars in Redmond compromising it first.

[@Greg_Rock]

ME, Vista, 8, 98, DAS, 2000, 95, 11, 10, XP, 7. That's the reverse tier list, change my mind.

[@crazycatlady1292]

My mom used a Windows ME computer in the early 2000s as a karaoke machine. She still has it and still works great. I’ve used it for many years and never had any issues with it.

[@twerkingfish4029]

My first version of windows was ME, and I literally never had any issues. I don’t know what everyone is going on about. In hindsight, it was a bit of a bloated mess, but it didn’t ever just fail to work properly for me.

[@niduroki]

What about Windows Bob, is Windows ME *worse* than Windows Bob? 👀

[@DrForrester87]

Ran two different ME computers from 2000-2007 and never had and bugs or glitches on either of them. The first died because my brother opened it up, tampered with things and then didn't know how to undo what he did. So he closed the tower back up, then tried to pass off the popping sound and small trail of smoke when he tried booting it up as some kind of failure on the computer's part. The second one, which was bought at the same time as the first, was old and needed to retire so I moved stuff onto my new at the time laptop.

[@sanekibeko]

I just want the Aero Glass back but 8 and 10 took it away.

[@silversolver7809]

How come Win 2000 didn't get a mention? That was a very decent OS-I moved to it from 98SE after hearing the ME wailing, and kept it until XP's bug-ridden launch was fixed via 3 Service Packs. Windows 2000, unsung hero :( Remember Windows CE for small devices, back around that time? Gave rise to a great meme about all the various OSs of the time crashing and bricking machines-Windows CEMeNT :D

[@silversolver7809]

@@muneebrehman6288 "Windows 2000 … lacked in gaming capabilities" Did it? I don't remember that, I was playing games all thru that era and don't remember being constrained by the OS. Win2000 had DirectX 7, 8, 9 thru its life, which should have made if pretty games capable. "Windows 2000 was the server version of windows ME" Hmm, I thought 2000 was the 'friendly' face of NT-not part of the 9X series like ME. 3 of the 2000 SKUs were server-oriented, but the Professional SKU was aimed at individuals-but somewhat tech savvy people it's true, I do recall some under the hood stuff to get it the way I wanted it. XP then essentially tried to marry 2000's reliability and security with Me's/9X's ease of use, and eventually succeeded with Service Pack 3 around 2008-and of course succeeded hugely a year later with the superb Win7.

[@hovant6666]

We used DOS and 98 as a kid, such fond memories

[@TheMikeyb86]

I don't know why my experience is so different than the entire world's, but I loved ME way better than 98SE because I found it, ironically, MORE stable than 98SE. Guess I'm the odd ball.

[@0.Kenshin]

I must be one of the few than had very little issues with ME back then. It always seemed to me like those on older hardware were the ones that had problems.

[@spamcan9208]

3:08 "shtore shelves" I heard that lol

[@bobblueton]

Trying to get ME to play well with my Dell desktop caused a lot of problems. Usually could get it resolved. Back in the day when tech support actually spoke english. Of course I was like 13 years old and really had no business messing around in device manager to begin with, but it taught me alot and got me into computers in general. My dad installed NT 4 and I never had an issue again.

[@Mr_mole47]

The start up sound is beautiful tho.

[@xTheUnderscorex]

Used ME all through high school. The startup process for my laptop was mostly going ctrl-alt-delete as soon as the desktop show and closing a bunch of specific programs so that it wouldn't crash

[@steelsofliquid]

Windows 98 SE isn't that bad (from my experience), with the only issues being hardware-related issues because I use it on a PC from 2004. Also, very ironically, Windows 2000 (the NT counterpart to Windows Me) has been probably the most unreliable version of Windows for me, while I've had no issues whatsoever with using Windows Me.

[@cemetery895]

Yeah my first computer ever had the windows ME, it was an old Power Spec, I can't really remember if I had any issues with it because I was young. I disliked 11 the most, but it could be improved.

[@NinjAsylum]

I actually used Windows ME for 5 years and didnt have a single blue screen or crash the entire time. Not one. Ever. It was perfectly stable.

[@AtoManPL]

ME was working stable when XP (pre-SP1) was a steaming pile that broke itself the moment you connected the the internet. People just hate it because it wasn't different enough to 98SE and keep forgetting that's when Windows Restore debuted - and was a godsend.

[@rarapas]

Neptune! I got the build floating around a few years later and I tried it on real hardware. It was AMAZING. There were no drivers for it - and I didn't tinker that much with it, but it was a huge step forward and you could tell.

[@GroundHawkX]

Windows ME was immaculate compared to the trouble I’ve had with Windows 10. 10 was an absolute nightmare and still sucks. Endless broken updates, constant blue screens and self corrupting system files, all this across multiple systems all the way through the pandemic. I rolled back dozens of systems to Windows 7 for stability and endless compatibility, even though it’s out of date it still works reliably.