PEE on Win ME !!

I think Tetrium has the most experience with Win ME on these forums... maybe you care to pipe in why bro?

I guess if it doesn't randomly crash on you all the time, then go for it. I used to work as a PC tech and had countless issues with systems running Win ME. The problem was that everything appeared to be configured correctly and you could have it running the same tests without error over and over and then all of a sudden you'd get a BSOD. Sometimes a couple days later (just sitting there) it would happen. I even witnessed this on factory reset systems. If you replaced Win ME with Win 98 SE the systems would run flawlessly. I'm no programmer, but it always felt like buggy code to me. At the time, I was running Win 2000 on my personal system (maybe not the best choice for a Retro/DOS gaming rig).

simbin wrote:

The problem was that everything appeared to be configured correctly and you could have it running the same tests without error over and over and then all of a sudden you'd get a BSOD. Sometimes a couple days later (just sitting there) it would happen. I even witnessed this on factory reset systems.

Perhaps it was trying to run a scheduled System Restore backup? I understand that was also a particularly buggy aspect of ME that would be better disabled.

Jorpho wrote:

simbin wrote:

The problem was that everything appeared to be configured correctly and you could have it running the same tests without error over and over and then all of a sudden you'd get a BSOD. Sometimes a couple days later (just sitting there) it would happen. I even witnessed this on factory reset systems.

Perhaps it was trying to run a scheduled System Restore backup? I understand that was also a particularly buggy aspect of ME that would be better disabled.

I always disabled that back in the day. In fact, there were sites dedicated to tweaking Win ME for better stability. I'd imagine I tried everything in the book back then. Of course my head's a little foggy on the subject today.

I remember thinking at one time, maybe Win ME had better hardware checking and was puking on cheapo hardware. I got nothing to really back that up however.

sgt76 wrote:

I think Tetrium has the most experience with Win ME on these forums... maybe you care to pipe in why bro?

I didn't notice this thread until just now.
True, I've used ME for years on end on a LOT of different systems.
The reason I went with ME was basically because 1)I didn't have 98SE yet and 2)98FE was WAY more unstable for me then ME ever was.

There was a very lengthy post on msfn.org about what the advantages of ME were over those of 98SE.

In the very end the choice between ME and 98SE comes down to personal preference.
Sometimes the choice is made for you because either 98SE or ME won't work with a particular rig for unknown reasons.

simbin wrote:

I always disabled that back in the day. In fact, there were sites dedicated to tweaking Win ME for better stability. I'd imagine I tried everything in the book back then. Of course my head's a little foggy on the subject today.

I remember thinking at one time, maybe Win ME had better hardware checking and was puking on cheapo hardware. I got nothing to really back that up however.

Yes, I also used loads of those tweaks myself, disabling things like system restore etc.
I even keep all of the tweaks on a USB stick somewhere so I can start the tweaks right after I finish a new install 😀

I prefer ME over 98SE usually because 1)I've used ME for so long and know my way around in it and 2)because it works for me 😀
So far only 1 ME rig of mine has bitten the dust for unknown reasons.
All of my ME rigs tended to be very stable though. Can't even remember when I had my last ME BSoD.

So to keep it brief (I could go on writing for a lot longer 🤣), the choice 98SE or ME is mainly one of personal preference 😉
BUT I'd recommend tweaking either installs. ME untweaked has many of it's flaws enabled (I really dislike the backup thingy ME does) and 98SE untweaked doesn't even support USB drives.

I've used one 98SE rig briefly once and I really hated that it didn't work with USB drives, though the unofficial 2.0something patch fixed that.

ME was an attempt to stretch the unstable legacy-laden 9x OS architecture further until XP was ready. It usually works ok for what it is, but it doesn't really have advantages over 98SE that really matter IMO. It's interesting to try out but I tend to just run 98SE because it is most likely to work with everything.

98SE!