Review: Windows Me Not a Must

N E W   Y O R K, Sept. 15 -- Microsoft’s latest upgrade to Windows went on sale, but the launch was low-key, as befits a modest improvement.

While Windows Me should be fine as theoperating system of a new computer, upgrading an existing computeris risky and may not be worth the benefits: faster boot-ups andsome improved multimedia capabilities.

Windows Me, or Millennium Edition, is an update ofconsumer-oriented Windows 98. Tellingly, it is cheaper than anyother Windows upgrade so far, with suggested retail price of$59.99. Some stores are reportedly selling it for $49.99.

Putting It to the Test

We installed Me with little trouble on a computer with a cleanhard disk and a well-used Dell running Windows 98. But a thirdcomputer, a home-built system running Windows 98, would actuallyshut itself down trying to boot up with Me.

Reversing the process after this failed installation took more thanthree hours. A second installation attempt, with a hardwaremodification turned off, was successful.

This does not necessarily reveal a major flaw in Me: thehardware tweak, called overclocking, is something neither hardwarenor software makers officially support.

But it does confirm that upgrading the operating system is thecomputer equivalent of major surgery and should be attempted onlyif the benefits are worth potential complications.

Microsoft warns that some older antivirus and Internet softwarewill not work with Me. In our test, the program that connects oneof our test computers to a digital subscriber line, a high-speedInternet connection, failed after the upgrade. A free fix availableon a German programmer’s Web site solved that problem.

On another computer, a poorly written shareware program forInternet downloads also stopped working after the upgrade — abearable loss.

Some Pluses

Windows Me contains a number of improvements, but most arerather modest. Perhaps the most appealing is that it boots fasterthan Windows 98, by 30 to 45 seconds in our tests. That may notsound like much, but boot-ups are one of those occasions when timeseems to drag.