ME for you?

By Doug Bedell
Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

Special to The Dallas Morning News: Bob Robinson

REVIEW

Win Me — Microsoft's Windows Millennium Edition — is the last in a succession of computer operating system products that revolutionized desktop computing. On Sept. 14, the company will release this ultimate update for the Windows 95/98 consumer platform, then turn its attention to a whole new design scheduled to debut in the next two years.

For this final dance, Win Me entices home users with an alluring look. Networking is easier. Built-in applications simplify music and home video production. Other additions make it a snap to return to stable configurations when the dreaded blue screen of death rears its ugly head. "I think it's the best offering that home users have ever had," says Microsoft product manager David Ursino.

On the other hand, many users will find these features don't offer a compelling reason to upgrade, especially if they already have stable installations of Windows 98 SE. The look and feel is essentially unchanged. Windows Me may not be any faster or more efficient.

And, in its effort to streamline the operating system and speed start-up times, Microsoft has taken away some access to MS-DOS, the old computer language on which Win95/98 is built. That has caused whining from DOS-dependent users still using it for arcane chores.

But, across the Web at sites specializing in dissection of new operating systems, Windows Me generally has been greeted with a collective yawn. "Not one of the four Windows experts who worked on this story intends to upgrade his primary PC to Windows Me," says a team from Winmag.com. Adds Andy Patrizio of Byte.com: "After spending a month playing with the final code, I find myself back running Win 98 SE. Windows Me adds a lot of features that I had minimal or no use for, removed things I needed in my daily routine and, in general, was bloated, used more memory and was actually more crash-prone."

Pricing and timing

If you already own a copy of Win98 or Win98 SE, Microsoft is trying to woo you with its lowest price ever for an upgrade.

Through Jan. 15, you can grab a special version from the company Web site for $59.95. After that, it will cost $109. The company says this is a reward for your loyalty. Buy.com and other online markets are even offering a $49.95 "pre-order" sales price. "Microsoft may have had to drop the price of Windows Me because it has not developed extensive new features for this version," says analyst Michael Silver of Gartner Group, which studies the consumer software industry.

For everybody else, there's no break from Microsoft's normal pricing scheme. A full installation version will sell for $209; the Windows 95 upgrade, $109.

When buying a new PC from a major manufacturer, expect to see Windows Me preloaded on most machines shipped in September. Two other factors deserve early consideration.

First, several of the most highly touted portions of Windows Me — including Windows Media Player 7.0, Internet Explorer 5.5, DirectX 7.0a and Net-Meeting 3.0 — are already available free for download from Microsoft.

Second, "Whistler" is in the wings. The next version of Microsoft's consumer operating system using that code name will arrive in beta form later this year. If Windows Me is an evolution of Win9x, Whistler promises revolution. Built on the Windows 2000 architecture, this major upgrade may not reach final form for a year or two. Microsoft is banking that consumers are itchy for something new right now.

As in every Microsoft operating system, the company's patches and tweaks will be important in ironing out issues as they arise. Windows Me sports an automatic update feature that may help home users stay on top of such irritating chores. Until the operating system is fully deployed, however, it is impossible to gauge how much work this will save.

For now, the auto-updater simply annoys users with its regular "checks" of the Microsoft Web site for yet-to-be updates.

The bare minimum system needed to run Windows Me features consists of a 28.8 Kbps modem or faster, CD-ROM drive, sound card, speakers or headphones, mouse, VGA or higher resolution monitor, a Pentium 150 MHz or faster processor, 32 megabytes or more RAM and 295MB free hard-disk space.

So-called power users — those who habitually install and uninstall programs — may run into hang-ups during Windows Me upgrades. Likewise, Microsoft notes sporadic conflicts with home-networked computers running anti-virus programs, Pretty Good Privacy and personal firewall software such as BlackIce Defender and Norton Inter-net Security. Aborted installations will instruct you to uninstall any conflicting software, then resume.

All that considered, here's a look at what's in store if you make the Septem-ber Windows Me plunge.

PC Health

Two Windows Me PC Health components are major advancements — especially for beginners who regularly diddle their machines into dysfunction.

System Restore takes snapshots of your machine's state at regular intervals — after 25 hours of up time, after 20 hours of computing time and whenever significant changes are made to the hard disk. Like the third-party software program Go-Back, Windows Me allows users to return haywire desktops to their last known stable incarnation. "Usability studies show regular home users want this type of functionality without having to fiddle with it," says Mr. Ursino.

Meanwhile, System File Protection, which first appeared in Windows 2000, keeps hyperactive users from overwriting critical system files. System files identify components of the operating system for the computer. Many times with Windows, improper software installations can change one or more of those files, rendering the operating system unbootable or severely impaired. The System File Protection feature of Windows Me won't let you go there.

Digital entertainment

Critics of Microsoft grimace when they hear the company describe its vision of "fun." Often, the software designed by this mega-corporation comes off like Bill Gates dancing hip-hop. It just looks all wrong.

Windows Media Player 7 leaps into digital music with a frightening flourish. This multi-featured music manager for MP3, CDs, Internet radio and music videos is an ambitious, do-it-all program. It even allows the use of "skins," customizable, graphic overlays that change the appearance of the Media Player's interface. Inside, Media Player 7 tries to make it easier to organize music on your hard disk and burn your own CDs. There are plenty of free software packages that do the same thing, of course. But this is a major attempt by Microsoft to get a piece of the game.

One caution: If you use the new Media Player, you'll need at least a 166 MHz Pentium with 64MB of RAM.

On the video front, Windows Movie Maker makes a significant attempt to match Apple's vaunted iMovie software for creative, professional-looking productions from home camcorders. Another function helps catalog and edit still digital pictures. For users new to this hobby, Movie Maker strips away a lot of the difficulty. Direct input from the camcorder can be easily compressed for e-mailing vacation footage, baby updates and other creations to relatives and friends — or posting on the Internet.

The program works with all cam-corder connections — from USB and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) to analog.

Home networking

For those who have yet to labor through the hassles of networking one or more computers to feed from a single Internet connection, new networking wizards may help smooth the way. A Network Places folder automatically shows all hard disks available on other machines inside the home network.

Internet Explorer 5.5

Except for one minor aspect, most of IE 5.5 appears identical to previous editions of the world's most popular browser. This new release — also available as a free download without Windows Me — allows users to see exactly how a Web page will look before printing. It's nothing that will spark spontaneous dancing.

Menu tweaks

Office 2000 and Windows 2000 have received praise for their menu organization schemes, and Windows Me piggybacks on that popularity. Instead of piling every application into those elongated lists under Programs in the Start menu, Windows Me leans down the selections to those you use most often. The rest of the programs are still easily accessible by clicking on a little chevron at the bottom of the Windows Me programs list.

Microsoft attempts to further distance Windows Me from its MS-DOS roots. Windows and other operating systems work by building layer upon layer of instructions for the computer. MS-DOS is always loaded first. Then, the graphics components of Windows create the user desktop for display on the computer monitor.

With Win Me, Microsoft removes some, but not all, of the access to the MS-DOS. Many older games that require "real mode" DOS will not operate on Win Me. Trouble-shooting is also a little different because the system won't allow users to boot right into DOS at start-up. They'll have to use a floppy disk instead. Although it may require adjustments for power users, winnowing down access to DOS was essential and desirable, says Mr. Ursino. A number of Windows 95/98 problems stem from running the real mode of DOS that underlies the Windows system.

So is it faster?

Whether Windows Me is speedier depends, of course, on the user. But, in general, the addition of features such as System Restore has come at a price.

Microsoft isn't boasting that Windows Me is any faster than previous efforts.

In benchmark testing by eWeek Labs, the new version proved "significantly slower" than Windows 2000 and "slightly slower" than Windows 98.

On boot-up, it may be a different story. Microsoft is helping manufacturers configure new machines with Fast Boot 2.0 specifications that can power up in 30 seconds or less — about half the time taken by typical Windows 98 systems.

Review copies provided by Micro-soft started an average of 12 seconds faster on motherboards that are more than a year old.

Dell has promised to begin marketing Fast Boot PCs this year, and Intel is joining other hardware suppliers in making changes that take advantage of its potential to speed up the long wait.

Contact Doug Bedell by writing dbedell@dallasnews.com

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