frank2243 wrote on 2026-08-10, 19:10:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2026-08-10, 07:33:

The codebase used isnt in dispute. The fact is if I installed it with US it was there if I installed with UK it wasnt. […]
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zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-10, 07:14:

It is same codebase across English Locales including US, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada etc.
Non English Locales have a slightly different code base and have their own problems.

The codebase used isnt in dispute.
The fact is if I installed it with US it was there if I installed with UK it wasnt.

It really is the simple.

The splash screen was also not appearing in the french canadian locale on my side.

Yeah I dont understand how it works.
I dont know what triggers it to install and activate in the build.
Maybe Microsoft designed it so it only appears on the American version of the OS.

I havent played with that system for a while now, I would have to copy the files to another system to play with it over again.

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows.
Like all 9x windows versions I recommend retail edition where possible this avoids the OEM SKU's unless the install media came with it's OEM PC originally.
All windows 9x Retail Discs actually had much less junk on them too.
The discouragement of using retail editions is lack of bootable CDROM support requiring floppy disk which can be resolved by copying optical boot from Windows OEM edition placing it into a Windows Retail ISO and burning a CDR (A DVDR can be used also.)
I have put a Windows Millennium Retail Edition Bootable ISO on archive.org for mostly me but also anyone however I won't link it here interested persons must search.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-11, 08:44:

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows. Like all 9x windows versions I recommend […]
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On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows.
Like all 9x windows versions I recommend retail edition where possible this avoids the OEM SKU's unless the install media came with it's OEM PC originally.
All windows 9x Retail Discs actually had much less junk on them too.
The discouragement of using retail editions is lack of bootable CDROM support requiring floppy disk which can be resolved by copying optical boot from Windows OEM edition placing it into a Windows Retail ISO and burning a CDR (A DVDR can be used also.)
I have put a Windows Millennium Retail Edition Bootable ISO on archive.org for mostly me but also anyone however I won't link it here interested persons must search.

I have a genuine WinME CD marked only for distribution with new PCs... Thats bootable media and is OEM.
I have a genuine Microsoft Select media thats bootable.
I have a retail CD thats bootable too...

Im a bit of a collector you see so I have all of them...

I tried all versions of the media believe me. I can not get the logo to appear when UK is set as the locale...
Maybe it is there its booting so quickly I dont see it because it doesnt have a chance to display... But its not on the PC as a file, or not one I can find.

From memory, as it was shelved as a project a while ago, it was on a 1.2GHz PIII. So not that fast.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-11, 08:44:

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows. Like all 9x windows versions I recommend […]
Show full quote

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows.
Like all 9x windows versions I recommend retail edition where possible this avoids the OEM SKU's unless the install media came with it's OEM PC originally.
All windows 9x Retail Discs actually had much less junk on them too.
The discouragement of using retail editions is lack of bootable CDROM support requiring floppy disk which can be resolved by copying optical boot from Windows OEM edition placing it into a Windows Retail ISO and burning a CDR (A DVDR can be used also.)
I have put a Windows Millennium Retail Edition Bootable ISO on archive.org for mostly me but also anyone however I won't link it here interested persons must search.

Could it be possible that on my 800 Mhz thinclient I don't see it because the CPU is too fast?

frank2243 wrote on 2026-08-12, 13:39:

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-11, 08:44:

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows. Like all 9x windows versions I recommend […]
Show full quote

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows.
Like all 9x windows versions I recommend retail edition where possible this avoids the OEM SKU's unless the install media came with it's OEM PC originally.
All windows 9x Retail Discs actually had much less junk on them too.
The discouragement of using retail editions is lack of bootable CDROM support requiring floppy disk which can be resolved by copying optical boot from Windows OEM edition placing it into a Windows Retail ISO and burning a CDR (A DVDR can be used also.)
I have put a Windows Millennium Retail Edition Bootable ISO on archive.org for mostly me but also anyone however I won't link it here interested persons must search.

Could it be possible that on my 800 Mhz thinclient I don't see it because the CPU is too fast?

Its possible i have seen the splash on much older CPU systems.

My assumption is that this problem caused by the video card (in combination with bios/motherboard). I had the same problem in the past. Using the same OEM Windows ME CD on the same pc it showed the splash screen with one video card but didn't show it anymore when using another video card (after a clean install). Had this issue also on another pc.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:09:

frank2243 wrote on 2026-08-12, 13:39:

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-11, 08:44:

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows. Like all 9x windows versions I recommend […]
Show full quote

On my pentium 4 machine I see the splash but only a blink of an eye and I’m in windows.
Like all 9x windows versions I recommend retail edition where possible this avoids the OEM SKU's unless the install media came with it's OEM PC originally.
All windows 9x Retail Discs actually had much less junk on them too.
The discouragement of using retail editions is lack of bootable CDROM support requiring floppy disk which can be resolved by copying optical boot from Windows OEM edition placing it into a Windows Retail ISO and burning a CDR (A DVDR can be used also.)
I have put a Windows Millennium Retail Edition Bootable ISO on archive.org for mostly me but also anyone however I won't link it here interested persons must search.

Could it be possible that on my 800 Mhz thinclient I don't see it because the CPU is too fast?

Many people say its the GPU that causes it but its not really a bug its the fact the damn thing boots too fast to do the splash routine in time.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:32:

Many people say its the GPU that causes it but its not really a bug its the fact the damn thing boots too fast to do the splash routine in time.

Well like I said that is not the case for me. Same PC, same CPU etc. With one video card no problems. With another one no splash screen. And I had this issue on multiple PCs.

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:39:

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:32:

Many people say its the GPU that causes it but its not really a bug its the fact the damn thing boots too fast to do the splash routine in time.

Well like I said that is not the case for me. Same PC, same CPU etc. With one video card no problems. With another one no splash screen. And I had this issue on multiple PCs.

So we need a list those that do and those that don't then.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:46:

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:39:

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:32:

Many people say its the GPU that causes it but its not really a bug its the fact the damn thing boots too fast to do the splash routine in time.

Well like I said that is not the case for me. Same PC, same CPU etc. With one video card no problems. With another one no splash screen. And I had this issue on multiple PCs.

So we need a list those that do and those that don't then.

Don't know if a list is helpful as I think it's not only the video card but also the combination with the motherboard/bios like I said before. But I can give an example of one of my PCs:

MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard with an AMD Athlon 2400+ CPU:

Not working: ASUS GeForce FX5700 256MB (AGP)
Working: Aopen Geforce 4 Ti4200 8x V64(N8) (AGP)

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:56:

Don't know if a list is helpful as I think it's not only the video card but also the combination with the motherboard/bios like […]
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zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:46:

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-08-12, 16:39:

Well like I said that is not the case for me. Same PC, same CPU etc. With one video card no problems. With another one no splash screen. And I had this issue on multiple PCs.

So we need a list those that do and those that don't then.

Don't know if a list is helpful as I think it's not only the video card but also the combination with the motherboard/bios like I said before. But I can give an example of one of my PCs:

MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard with an AMD Athlon 2400+ CPU:

Not working: ASUS GeForce FX5700 256MB (AGP)
Working: Aopen Geforce 4 Ti4200 8x V64(N8) (AGP)

I appreciate your examples the GPU's you mention are within the generation supported by Windows Me drivers.
I notice your GPU's you comment are Nvidia I have an Nvidia on a pentium 4 motherboard but doesn't show it.
I remember the same Nvidia card of mine did show the Windows Me splash when running at 4X AGP on a pentium 3 motherboard, however only very briefly.

I have a Wyse Vx0 thinclient with a via eden 800 MHz processor.
Not working : the integrated VIA S3 UniChrome Pro (CN700)
Most recent drivers for Windows Me are installed.

I have a Pentium 4 651 3.4GHZ (Cedar Mill) system (see signature). GPU is a GeForce 4200 Ti.

Windows ME doesn't display the splash screen on startup. It just displays a blinking cursor.

I've even tried disabling L1/L2 cache in the bios to throttle the system. It still won't display the splash screen, though the boot up time takes considerably longer with cache disabled.