Windows Me review

Technical stuff

Many of the most worthwhile changes are aimed at making your system more reliable. PC Health features operate in the background. The System Restore component backs up crucial system files when your computer is idle, taking a snapshot of the system state every 10 hours of processing time, or on demand using the wizard. If the system stops working, you can reboot in Safe Mode and run the wizard to restore a previously saved system state. Lost documents and e-mails won't be recovered, but damaged system files will be replaced with working copies. System File Protection prevents applications from overwriting crucial .Dll files with older or non-standard versions. You can also choose the new AutoUpdate feature that downloads newer versions of system files in the background, and then prompts you to activate them.

The Help and Support features provide browser-style help, access to trouble shooters and access to various tools such as System Information and System Restore.

Microsoft has removed the option to restart or boot to the MS-DOS Prompt, forcing you to run DOS applications in DOS windows. This could cause problems with applications and device setup that require real DOS, but you do have the option of booting to DOS with the emergency restart disk.

Home networking is also made a lot easier with Windows Me. The Home Networking Wizard sets up and customises file and printer sharing for the Windows Me PC network. It then offers to create a disk to install the Windows Me network software on other PCs on the same network, even if they are only running Windows 95 or 98. It even allows you to set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), so that all your PCs on the network can share a single dial-up or broadband connection. New network features behind the scenes include support for Microsoft's Universal Plug and Play specification, which lets Windows communicate with devices such as refrigerators and wearable computers.

Perhaps the least well-considered new feature in Windows Me is the redesigned Control Panel. This has a fixed selection of entries that cannot be varied. For most users, it'll be necessary to expand the list to find the option needed, so the abbreviated list is more an irritation than a benefit. This could have been a useful feature, if Microsoft had gone one step further and made the subset adjustable.

Is Windows Me the one for me?

Are there enough new features and benefits included in Windows Me to make it worth upgrading? If you're using Windows 95 or the first version of Windows 98, and you have the RAM, hard disk space and processing power, then go for it. If you want support for a new digital device such as a digital camera, ME also offers clear benefits. If you're a new user, Windows Me is definitely easier to get to grips with than Windows 98. Anyone buying a new PC should also choose a model that's supplied with the new operating system ready-installed.

However, if you're already using Windows 98 Second Edition, or if you make a habit of downloading Windows updates from the Microsoft web site, you'll need more than the Windows Me pretty face to persuade you to upgrade.