What's better: Win98se or WinME ??

[Quad]

and why?

 

[Noriaki]

Win98SE is better by far, WinME just adds bloat and takes out some system level control for no good reason.

 

[Tsaico]

I personally like win98se, I went to winme and would get random freezes, scandisk would also run everytime I booted up, and Rogue Spear woulnd't work on my Winme box. Can't have that, so I stick to win98se because:
1) If there is problem, I know how to fix it.
2) If i do not, then there are enough people running it (or use to) that will know what is wrong
3) All of my games run on it without a hitch
4) It has a dos shell that has the familiar commands of things like format c:/q/s

 

[Mem]

Win98SE is better,more stable & less hassles with drivers.

 

[fkloster]

WinME run great in my box. I like WinME because it is stacked with most of the newest drivers...Win98SE didn't dig me i850 & USB stuff too good....

 

[rmblam]

I have been using/testing WinME for some time now. I initially had it on 4 machines. On 3 of them the floppy refused to work or copied with errors. Once Windows 98se was reinstalled then the floppies worked just fine again. I still have it on one machine although I continue to have random problems with my printer. I am installing Windows 2000 on that machine today. Bye bye WinME...

I'd stick with 98se. You might get lucky and be one of the ones with the right hardware and ideal drivers, but I think the odds are against you.

 

[Lvsheng]

For me, I like Win98SE more than WinME simply because WinME has more bugs.

I am using Microsoft Mouse yet I am having problem with Microsoft OS. The mouse will move erratically if you set the mouse speed and acceleration too high. Then, there is no more DOS support (at least you can't access from ME). The performence benefit ain't big. You won't get huge fps increase in your Q3A. The most thing I hate is WinME apparently shut down the HDD before OS ready to shut down. This result hang and crash on my PC, so my ME cannot last longer than 1 month and compelled me to format it every few weeks. On my old machine that don't support ACPI, it is even worse. Today you install ME, the next 2 day you cannot start your computer already. A blue screen come up everytime WinME start saying "Windows protection error". Sucks!!!

Although ME has a build in backup tool, but you can't even enter ME even in safe mode, what is the benefit of having that backup tool? But in terms of user friendly, ME really stand out from 98SE, but that couldn't make my mind to shift to it because it has just simply too many bugs. Yes some of my older games also cannot run in ME (even can run, the game behave strangely).

So if I rate ME, I will give 2 out of 5. Why don't you use Win2k? I am using it and it is really rock solid stable, my computer had been running many many hours but still didn't hang once. But of course Win2000 is slow at fps. That is the downside, hopefully Whistler will overcome this.

 

[fkloster]

You guys that are having problems with hardware working right under WinME....it has nothing to do with with WinME. If configured properly, WinME works fine.

 

[Lvsheng]

fkloster, which configuration do we need to make ME stable? First tell me how to make the mouse stop moving eratically, that is the most annoying part of ME. Then help me out with the shut down blue screen that occasionally happen when I use ME.

 

[fkloster]

BSOD? Erratic mouse?? This has NOTHING to do with the OS by itself. Are you OC'ing? Are you using a warez copy of ME?

 

[Lvsheng]

No OC, even if i borrow my friend ME CD, the same error will come out too.

 

[rmblam]

Oh please, your telling me that on a laptop and 2 desktops (out of 3) that have fully functional floppy drives in Win98se but fail to work in WinME is a configuration issue? What is there to configure?

I agree on the printer deal. That is a driver issue, but my Compaq IJ900 is not supported for WinME. After disabling all the dos related printer functions it is a lot better. That is definitely a configuration issue. I agree. Solution? I just bought a Lexmark z52. The IJ900 is getting donated.

If WinME works for you then great.. I still think it is more hassle then it is worth over 98se...

 

[fkloster]

I am just tellin' you guys, think about it.... All WinME is is Win98SE with a few more bells & wistles. Its the same OS.

 

[Rhapsody]

I "upgraded" to ME from 98SE on four machines, and had video problems on one of the four, which finally went away after several driver changeouts. Now that was the upgrade. I then wiped out the disk on two of the units and did a clean install with the upgrade disk (which I learned from these forums works just fine for full installation as long as you use a prior full version of Windows for keycoding unlock only). And indeed the installation and behavior is flawless. I find that the installation of cards etc is cleaner with ME than 98SE, and it seems to recognize hardware better.

In short, while I have some misgivings about a 98SE box upgraded to ME, I find ME from a clean install to be more stable than 98SE.

 

[bacillus]

<< a few more bells &amp; wistles. >>


wistles??

 

[Noriaki]

<< All WinME is is Win98SE with a few more bells &amp; wistles. Its the same OS. >>

Yup, just a few more bells and whistles we don't want or need, and just use RAM. That's why I don't like it, it doesn't actually add anything useful, and just uses some more resources.

 

[Azeroth]

I had a hard time running dos programs in winme stuff that did work on Win98SE, so i got back to Win98SE is way better and more stable.

 

[Lvsheng]

Correct, ME is just a enhanced version of 98SE but dunno why my system seems to 'hate' ME. But nvm since normally I use Win2000 more.

 

[Biggs]

You can always download the free version of 98Lite and remove as much bloat as you want. I personally would recommend 98SE as I've had good experiences with it. It can be stable if maintained properly.

 

[frover2000]

I'm running WinmeE now without a hitch, but personaly i find my computer runs sluggishly compared to how it ran with win98 installed. The slugish performance can be attributed to all the extra crap ms added that no one ever uses. So from a winme user i would stick ti win98 if i were you.

 

[Oyeve]

I prefer WinME for several reasons

1. NFS PU kept crashing in Win98SE
2. Deus-EX refused to play right on Win98SE
3. My DOS games play on WinME, thats right, they play better for me on WinME
4. My system is super maxed in everyway. The fact that WinME loads faster is a definate plus
5. Win2000, even though I use it exstensivly, just cant do it all.

These are my findings and do not reflect the product in any way Windows just suck period.
I also have several systems at home that run just great with Win98SE, its just my main system that WinME is needed more.

 

[Wik]

I have ME on one system as the main OS and it seems to run ok, not perfect though, but neither was 98. On my main machine I was bored and have 4 hard drives in it 2 being empty so I installed ME on it for kicks. I have yet to be able to use it for more then 2 hours without something going wrong on it. I guess my I am spoiled by Win2K.

If a program does not run in 2K it is not worth having

 

[RagingGuardian]

fkloster, a recent pcworld article also pointed out the mouse and keyboard problem in ME. The thing is it only happens with Microsoft keyboards and mice. Go figure. If ME runs perfectly on your machine then more power to you. I've had nothing but trouble and had to revert to SE for gaming reasons.

 

[TSDible]

Where can one find this &quot;98lite&quot;

I've heard of it before, but have yet to find it.

 

[Biggs]

You can grab 'em right here.