A User's Report on
Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)
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As a recipient of a Universal subscription to the Microsoft Developer's Network (MSDN), I had the opportunity to preview the Windows Millennium (Windows Me) operating system several months before its release. The Beta 3 version and the first Release Candidate were both made available to the MSDN Universal subscribers, and the "Gold" release, distributed to the vendors and set to be available to the public on 14 September 2000, arrived in late August. I installed the "Gold" release shortly after receipt and have had about two weeks of experience with it.
Reviews of Windows Me are already appearing on:
I won't repeat the details of these reports here (you are invited to follow the links in this paragraph and read the reports yourself). Instead, this document is a user's report based on my personal experiences with it, including setting it up to meet my needs (which are basically those of a software engineer and an educator).
From the CNET article, Microsoft created Windows Me with certain goals in mind:
| Microsoft Goal | Relationship to My Needs |
|---|---|
| Stability (called "PC Health") | I'm looking for a more stable, reliable platform, although I've been relatively satisfied with the stablility and reliability of Windows 98 SE and Windows NT the way I use them |
| Better tools for digital media | I'm looking for more effective ways to communicate, both as an engineer and as an educator, and audio and video productions have become a big part of that (as is evidenced by this report, which I found easier to prepare using Windows Me than with Windows 98 or NT) |
| More enjoyable gaming | I don't use my PCs for gaming except when I'm waiting on a long process, such as a download to complete, so there is no added advantage for me here |
| Easier, more reliable Intenet tools | I'm looking for a cleaner, smoother integration with the Internet, making it easier for me to exploit its resources to meet my needs as a software engineer and as an educator |
| Easier home networking | Home networking is appealing, but not a driving factor; however, I can see the hardware technology evolving, especially in the area of wireless networking, to make moving to home networking compelling in the not-too-distant-future |
As one would suspect, my needs extend beyond these goals, and I've found Windows Me to address them extensively. These additional needs include:
My experience at installing Windows Me was clean and painless. I was careful to read the Quick Start guide first, and followed its advise (which is common-sense anyway). Some of the key elements to my installation are:
I have come into the habit of keeping detailed installation logs, which outline the screens I saw and the responses I gave to them. This helps a lot for future reference and when you need to perform an installation again.
There are many elements of Windows Me that I find to be quite appealing. The following screens illustrate many (but probably not all) of them. I'm releasing this draft in order to get this information out as quickly as possible and plan to update it later as time permits.
| Description | Snapshot Click to Enlarge |
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Windows Me has the "look and feel" of Windows 2000; you can see the enhancements everywhere. During the development of Windows Me, the Windows 98 core was retained with some significant changes (such as the removal of the MSDOS mode) and many features of and lessons learned in the development of Windows 2000 were incorporated into Windows Me. After all, there is a fair amount of similarity in the Microsoft's goals for the two operating systems, although Windows 2000 is clearly suited to and aimed at the business user (particularly the enterprise user) and Windows Me is aimed at the home user. I continue to recommend Windows 2000 for business use over Windows Me, even though there is a potential up-front hardware upgrade cost (which I believe to be offset by lower long-term total cost of ownership for an organization). |
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When comparing Windows Me and Windows 2000 with previous versions of Windows, enhancements can be found everywhere. Based on user feedback and experience, these enhancements are usually small but add up to giving the user a significant feeling of improvement in his/her working environment. In this example, I illustrate this idea by showing a Windows Me Explorer screen with the "thumbnail" view switched on. While previous versions of Windows Explorer had four views (large icon, small icon, list, and details), Windows Me Explorer adds thumbnails, which makes photograph handling much easier. I used this feature of Windows Me Explorer extensively in the preparation of this report. |
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Windows Media Player 7 (available with Windows Me but also available via a free download from Microsoft) offers a central point for playing music, displaying videos, working with MP3 and WMA players, and other audio-visual activities. The enhancements to Windows Media Player are numerous, and it is a very entertaining tool. In this screen, I'm showing an example of the graphic visualizations possible during the playing of music. |
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The online help was vastly improved (including multimedia tours with videos), highly readable, well organized, and easy to use. I was surprised Windows Me did not come with Microsoft Reader (which is available for free and I found easy to install under Windows Me), but the help is so good that Reader may not have made much of a difference. |
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The online help is tree-structured and very easy to use, employing a web browser interface. I found it very easy to find the information I sought. |
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It is expected that a previous Windows owner would want to jump into the documentation on the new features. An excellent introduction to these features is available through the online help system. There are four focus areas:
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Updates can be expected, and help for the user is provided through an automated web-based update system. It is easy to use and free. Just during my first two weeks with Windows Me, I have already downloaded four updates (two for the operating system and two for Internet Explorer). Both critical and "nice-to-have" updates are identified. Updates can be set up to be run automatically (say, at night) or whenever the user wants to perform them (with complete user control). |
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An unbelievable amount of resources are provided my Microsoft on the web. I've created a set of local web pages that I use as my "home" web page collection, and there is a section just on Microsoft and its resources. From the Academic Cooperative to the Developer's Network to the User's Network (MSN), it's almost impossible to be completely familiar with what all is out there. |
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I find the Microsoft Developer's Network (MSDN) Library to be one of the most valuable online help resources available for this platform. Backed by the MSDN Website, this library is about 1.3G bytes in size, and I keep it fully loaded on my PC for fast and convenient access (you can also set it up to run from CDROM or DVD). It contains extensive documentation and code examples for the Visual Studio user and the Office developer. Microsoft recently changed its licensing policy on the MSDN Library to allow free distribution to co-workers if an organization purchases just a single copy. See the license for details. |
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One of the first distinctions to the user interface that I noted was the application of a "smart menu" system which, after a while, followed your use of the menus and started to offer only those menu items you accessed most frequently. You could always get to the other menus when you needed to, and I found this feature to be convenient in reducing "information glut" and allowing me to focus at the tasks at hand rather than viewing tools I use for other tasks. |
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The Windows Media Authoring tools (which I acquired at the Microsoft Tech Ed 2000 Conference) integrated nicely with Windows Me, supplementing its Windows Movie Maker. Media Authoring allows you to prepare web-based presentations which include a running audio track (for voiceover) or audio/video track (for full-motion video) in synchronization with images (such as Powerpoint slides), so the images change as the audio or audio/video presentation progresses. These tools are excellent for communication and education. |
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The Windows Movie Maker (which comes with Windows Me) is a user-friendly tool that provides the basic capability of putting together several distinct video clips into a single integrated video. It complements the Media Authoring tools nicely, and, while it lacks features of the major video production software out there, it is free with Windows Me and should meet all of the common needs that I can foresee. |
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The entire Microsoft Office suite (about 14 major tools in all) installed and ran without any problems under Windows Me. I also installed the Microsoft Reader and Adobe Acrobat, which integrated with several Office tools, providing add-in functionality. Adobe Acrobat also provides the PDF printer driver, which allows any Windows Me application to create a PDF file of its output (suitable for publication on the web). |
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The entire Microsoft Visual Studio suite installed and ran without any problems under Windows Me. I included the installation of the eMbedded Visual Tools, which supports the development of software for the Pocket PC and other mobile computers. The speed of execution of all the software under Windows Me was fast, and, even though Windows Me is aimed at the home user, it definitely supports the serious software engineer as well. |
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I think everyone eventually encounters a need to search his or her PC for a particular file or set of files, and the Search facility, like the rest of the tools the Windows user has come to expect, has been enhanced. The consistent user interface of Windows Me, which also extends into the web, makes the integration of Windows Me with the web (particularly when the Microsoft Network is your Internet Service Provider) makes the Windows Me platform "feel" like it cleanly extends to include the entire web. |
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While the courts may not like the idea of Microsoft integrating Internet Explorer with Windows, I personnally love the idea as a user. With such a tight relationship, my desktop PC is virtually extended into the web, making it easier (and more cost-effective) to use. If it was not for the occasional communication delay (which one may not observe at all as high-speed networking comes to the user), this integration makes the Windows Me-based user interface feel like it extends almost seamlessly through the web. In this example, I show the main page of my Ada and Software Engineering Library website, which is a part of the Microsoft Network communities. Facilities like email and bulletin board editors look and feel like conventional tools, but they are provided through the web, and I'm editing files on a remote system when I use them. |
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There are thousands of Microsoft Network Communities in which you can participate seamlessly as a Windows Me user. Only Internet Explorer 5 is required (so earlier versions of Windows will work as well), but the experience is enhanced when Windows Me is used. Again, the integration is seamless. |
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Users in the Microsoft Network Communities can assume distinct roles, such as Manager, Associate Manager, Member, and Visitor. Various levels of control and security are provided. |
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The Microsoft Passport is a reasonable attempt at getting around the problem of multiple signons on multiple websites. The Windows ME environment can retain user information, and a single signon name and password (with optional electronic wallet for purchases) can eliminate the clutter of keeping multiple user names and passwords around and help to make the web experience more seamless for secure traffic. Again, Windows Me is not required for this, but it helps. |
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Internet Explorer 5.5 (which comes with Windows Me) further enhances the seamless desktop PC/web experience by providing a copy/paste or drag and drop Windows Explorer-like interface to the web. In this example, I am accessing the Ada library section of the Washington University Archive in Internet Explorer 5.5 and my local disk in Windows Me Explorer. I can literally drag and drop files and directories from one to the other. |
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