Windows Millennium Edition Russian version (Windows ME) - Our release!
Bootable ISO image with installation menu + Includes bootable Partition Magic And Norton Commander Russian version. Mixed 16/32 bit. Year of release: 2000. Unsuccessful, in my opinion, operating system. Lots of glitches and lags. Microsoft was in a rush to release for the new millennium. By the way, it was named after him - III millennium. It is a kind of transitional stage between 98 and XP. The OS had many innovations inherent in XP. For example: System Restore, Windows Movie Maker. But at the core of ours, it's still the same 98.
Installation on a computer: (from BIOS CD)
And so ... We need: the OS image itself downloaded from this site, CD or DVD blank (to save money, I used a CD-RW that I found in my closet...), some computer with a CD-ROM, "straight arms", enthusiasm and a can of Pivas, but a cup of tea or a soda will do for children ...
Okay let's go!
1) Unzip WinMe_site.rar(I hope you have a RAR archiver). Inside we will see one single file: WimMe_site.iso. Um, yes it is "Wi m Me", disgrace... apparently he was drunk when he created it, but oh well, it won't hurt us. This file is our image in the format ISO. For those who are not aware of the ISO, this is a disk image file.
2) Next, we need to burn our RW disc in this way, which we have already prepared in advance (Burn to disk). We recommend a light free program. you can of course use Nero, but IMHO the program is extremely cumbersome and more suitable for those who are engaged in CD tampering!
In Burnaware, immediately in the main window, click: "Burn image" another window will open and there we will see: "Path to disk image" and the "Select ..." button, click on it and select our ISO file. Recording...
3) When our disk is ready, turn on the computer on which we are going to record Millenium and go into the BIOS (on different computers in different ways, for example, for this I need to press the key Delete) Our task is to set the Boot priority. This is such a motherboard setting that indicates which of the boot devices starts first, second, etc. Hard drives, CD-ROM, USB, LAN... We need our burnt disc that we put in the drive to start first. The first priority should be CD\DVD-ROM. In different BIOSes, all this looks different, so you need to somehow find and set this parameter! After that, save the settings and exit: Save and exit.
4) After rebooting the computer, if you did everything right, and the disk was recorded as it should, you will see the logo and then the boot menu!
There will be several options to choose from. First, prepare your hard drive for installing Windows Millennium Edition on it, the following requirements must be taken into account: the partition must have the FAT file system (FAT32 - not recommended), and formatted. All this can be done using the additional programs integrated into the image Partition Magic (Working with disk partitions) or FDISK, which can be found in the menu by downloading Norton Commander. After converting and formatting, be sure to restart your computer. When everything is ready, feel free to choose Install Windows Millennium Edition Rus from the menu - the installation will begin. Follow the instructions on the screen. After installation, for convenience, you can return the boot-priority (Hard disk first). Happy installation
Additionally: The image is checked for 100% working capacity
(It is possible to install on virtual machines: VirtualBox, VirtualPC);
Checked for viruses by licensed Kaspersky Anti-Virus! There are no viruses.
Serial number: not required!
When Microsoft released Windows 98, it was announced that it was the last operating system to be based on MS-DOS. Windows NT was supposed to be the direction that would lead to NT 5 (later Windows 2000) and thus become the single NT OS for both home and corporate users. However, as product development neared completion, there were reports that Windows 2000 Professional was positioned as a system for corporate users and would not dislodge Windows 98 from the home market. Moreover, Microsoft continued to develop the direction of Windows 98 and released a new edition of Windows 98 - Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), which fixed some bugs, introduced the latest version of Internet Explorer, added several drivers, improved support for mobile computers, and introduced a new a feature called Internet Connection Sharing. But Windows 98 SE, as it turns out, will not be the last of the Windows 9x “family”, Windows Millennium is being prepared to replace it.
After the introduction of Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft announced that it was the best Windows client system for organizations and that it would soon be installed on most office computers. Many users are wondering if Windows 2000 Professional is truly the best Windows client product, why not have it at home?
For many, the question remains - why Microsoft is still promoting Windows 98 as the most logical purchase for home use, continues to invest in this direction and promises that the release of Windows Millennium will be the next step after the release of Windows 98 SE.
In this article, we will try to talk about some of the features of the positioning of the released Windows 2000 Professional and the upcoming Windows Millennium, which will probably help readers understand what are the main differences between the two systems and which platform should be chosen in the future to install on your personal computer at home. or in the office.
Windows 2000 Professional
On February 17, there was a worldwide presentation of a new family of Windows 2000 products, including Windows 2000 Professional, which successfully combines the best features of Windows NT 5 with the advantages of Windows 95/98 and is positioned as the best Windows client system for organizations. That being said, it's worth reiterating that while Windows 2000 has taken on some of the best interface features of Windows 98, its kernel has remained the Windows NT kernel.
Microsoft is not accidentally proud of its offspring. Windows 2000 Professional has a ton of new and improved features that make it very attractive. The program has inherited increased reliability, information security and high performance - the traditional advantages of the Windows NT line. At the same time, Windows 2000 got rid of many of the shortcomings of its predecessor. In particular, unlike Windows NT, it has become much easier to install (there is a new Windows Installer service). Very effective tools for remote administration have been added, and the cost of operating the system has decreased. Windows 2000 allows you to create a dual-boot configuration where the alternate system can be Windows 9x or another OS. Reducing the need to reboot the system, improving the reliability of device drivers, improved application multitasking, and scalable support for memory and processors. The new system has a wider range of compatible hardware devices. The program received a new user interface Active Desktop, more Web-oriented.
Many corporate users note that Windows 2000 Professional is the fastest client system in the Windows family. Windows 2000, unlike previous versions of NT, is able to read disks formatted in FAT32, the system has its own NTFS 5 file system, which allows you to restrict access to files and folders and encrypt them with one click. There is built-in support for plug-and-play technology and much more.
It would seem that such a solid set of improvements should have led to the fact that Windows 2000 Professional could claim the entire niche of desktop computers, both in the office and at home.
Why Windows 2000 doesn't plan to push Windows 98 out of the "home" market
Many users have a logical question: if Windows 2000 Professional is so good and will soon become the standard operating system on office computers everywhere, then why not have the same operating system at home? Should you upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional, or should you wait until Windows Millennium comes out?
Windows 2000 has a lot of improvements, but it's important to understand if you need them for your home use. First, Windows 2000 Professional requires a faster processor than Windows 98 and at least 32MB of RAM, while Windows 98 runs successfully on slower processors and requires only 16MB of RAM.
But this is far from the main reason for not using Windows 2000 in home computers. According to Microsoft, "applications that do not conform to the Windows NT security model will not be supported in Windows 2000 Professional."
Because of this, there is a good chance that certain types of software that interacts directly with the hardware will have problems under Windows 2000. To a large extent, this applies to gaming software. Moreover, new games (especially those written for the DirectX interface) will work just as well under Windows 2000 as they do under Windows 98. However, with older games, which sometimes turn out to be very tenacious, the likelihood of compatibility problems in this case is great. There is a class of games for which the technologies of a decade ago were quite sufficient, and today a simple Tetris looks as modern as it did 10 years ago. Therefore, in general, there is no guarantee that game programs that run successfully on Windows 98 will work just as well on Windows 2000, and this is one of the significant points that prevents the use of Windows 2000 as a home operating system.
It's not just about games. Those devices that do not have NT or WDM drivers will most likely not be able to run Windows 2000. As many of you may remember, from the very beginning, Windows NT was a powerful product line that was highly secure and stable, but its file system was incompatible with that used in Windows 95/98.
When people say that Windows NT is much more reliable than Windows 9x, some mistakenly believe that this is due to the fact that the programs of the Windows 9x family contain a large number of bugs. In fact, the higher reliability of Windows NT/2000 is due to the more secure kernel architecture of this system. Unlike Windows NT, Windows 9x "makes less stringent requirements" for third-party programs, and therefore some of them, running under Windows 9x, can crash the system. The architecture of Windows NT/2000 avoids these problems.
It's also worth pointing out that you can't create a new operating system from scratch without supporting legacy applications that are rooted in 20-year-old programming techniques and please all users. Therefore, Windows 9x bears more of the burden of compatibility with older devices and programs. Speaking about the merits of Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft quite rightly notes that a lot of effort was put into the product to make the system as easy to use as possible. This is achieved through the implementation of a number of improvements related to a simpler and more reliable installer, a more conveniently customizable Desktop, which, in particular, is now able to be reconfigured to suit the individual needs of users. Windows 2000 Professional has improved access to documents and resources. That being said, it's clear that overall Windows 2000 is more powerful than Windows 98, has more collaboration tools, and more features overall, but that's why it's somewhat more difficult to set up and requires more professional skills to administer. This again makes it preferable for office use and does not allow it to be recommended for "dummies" as an alternative to Windows 98. In this regard, blaming Windows 2000 for being too complicated for home use is like criticizing the presentation of a mathematics course for being oversaturated with formulas. With Microsoft's announcement of Windows Millennium, a program that is positioned as a continuation of the Windows 9x product line, it seems that Windows Millennium and Windows 2000 will become some kind of competitor. In any case, we can say that Microsoft has taken the path of development in two directions: Windows NT - Windows 2000 and Windows 9x - Millennium. On the one hand, chasing two birds with one stone is always more difficult than one, on the other hand, if you stop supporting old standards and technologies, you can lose a huge class of home users - with all their old games, old peripherals and unwillingness to work with more complex equipment. All this, apparently, leads to a policy of supporting two directions. In all likelihood, this strategy allows, moving step by step along the path of convergence of the two above-mentioned lines, not to lose any of its users both in the corporate and home markets and, most importantly, not to leave loopholes for competitors to wedge in with their solutions on the market of desktop-systems, 90% of which was conquered with such difficulty. How successfully Microsoft will be able to maintain this market share, the future will show, and we will focus on the question: "what's new should appear in Windows Millennium?"
Windows Millennium - what's new?
It is necessary to immediately draw the reader's attention to the fact that all further considerations do not refer to the finished product, but to the beta version, which has not yet been optimized in many ways. Despite the fact that the not yet finished product is described, some facts can already be reliably stated. Windows Millennium is exactly the product that Microsoft plans to give us instead of ridding us of the 16-bit DOS legacy. That is, Windows Millennium, as we have already noted, is the next step in the direction of Windows 9x, and not a kind of Windows NT, so you should not expect such advantages from it as multiprocessing and NTFS. We emphasize this because we have repeatedly heard questions from the user community about the “nature” of Windows Millennium. Some of the confusion seems to have been related to Microsoft's early announcement that Windows 98 would be the last version under Windows 9x, and the company's announcement of a product called "Neptune" that was touted as the successor to the Windows 2000 line and intended for the home. market (another name for Neptune, which appeared in print, was "Consumer Windows" - this is how Millennium is now positioned). Some doubts among users of Microsoft products about the basis of Windows Millennium may also arise due to reports that some parts of Windows Millennium, such as, for example, the interface, are partially based on Windows 2000 code. Perhaps the above doubts were related to the WDM specification ( Windows Driver Model) - the fact is that drivers written according to the WDM specification can be used for both Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium. However, sharing one or another standard does not say anything about the basis, which is fundamentally different for Windows 2000 and Windows Millennium.
What is Windows Millennium - a new operating system or the same Windows 98 in a different package? Windows Millennium is aimed at the home market, is based on DOS and, according to the developer, will be the first OS made as part of a joint project between Microsoft and Intel called "Easy PC". Its goal is to simplify the Windows PC by using USB, FireWire, and Device Bay technologies to connect peripherals. The new operating system will expand the scope of home computer networks, digital video and audio devices, and the Internet.
The main tasks that Windows Millennium is designed to solve
Windows Millennium is positioned as an OS aimed at solving the following four tasks, which are formulated in the form of short slogans:
- digital media.
Support for digital media (digital environment). The home market is rapidly evolving, and devices that used to be the subject of professional use (scanner and digital camera) are becoming as commonplace in everyday use as the TV. (In this sense, Windows Millennium offers digital camera and scanner support at a more accessible level.) In particular, the preview system in the My Pictures folder, which is known from Windows 98 and is located inside the My Documents folder, has been improved. The system allows easy and convenient viewing and manipulation of images.
There is a new Scanners and Cameras Control Panel for device installation.
- online experience.
The term "on-line experience" refers to the simplification of access to the Internet.
- home networking.
Support for networking at home - home networking.
Until recently, a computer in the house was a luxury, but the prices for computers are falling, and the need for them for work and education is growing, so today it is far from uncommon for Russian users to have two or even three computers at home. As a result, it becomes necessary to connect computers at home with a network. But not every home has a network administrator, and for many "families" network administration is an overwhelming task. This is not to say that in Windows 98 this task was particularly difficult, but, nevertheless, detailed instructions on resource sharing, sharing shared folders were not enough, and they were not described in the terminology of home users.
Windows Millennium has a very simple and convenient assistant that will help even poorly trained users navigate the creation of a local home network.
Many experts note that this is a timely and very important improvement that will really help to use the system at home.
- it just works.
The concept of “it just works” (it just works) speaks of a combination of simplicity and reliability of the system. This concept is based on the technology of "self-healing" (self-healing), which consists in the fact that the program itself eliminates a certain type of problem without informing the owner of the computer about it, so as not to "hammer his head" and not to make him nervous. This concept is especially useful for home users, who would rather not know how "everything is running" with their computer if it can be automatically cured.
In particular, the Windows Update feature has been improved in the following way: now you have the ability to set a parameter that determines the mode in which the system will automatically download all new add-ons as they become available. In this case, the machine will only bother you with a warning that new additions are ready to be installed. Despite the fact that the system is called "self-healing", the developers did not take the liberty of allowing the system to make updates without warning the owner of the computer at all. Which, however, is logical - imagine the situation: you are waiting for a message from your beloved, and a soulless machine without a queue and without warning suddenly starts downloading "patches" for itself. Why not a plot for a novel in which a “smart” machine does not take into account “stupid” home users and “breaks” into the Internet without a queue when it pleases. Thank God, in Millennium you can basically refuse this form of service and control what is uploaded to your disk.
Another important acquisition of Windows Millennium is the System Restore feature, which takes "snapshots" of your system in case you want to "roll back" to this state in case of configuration conflicts. Imagine a situation where you add some additional device to the system that caused unresolvable problems: in this situation, you always have the opportunity to return to the moment when the last “snapshot” of your system was taken. This rollback should not damage your documents as it will not affect folders such as My Documents, Internet Explorer Settings, History, Favorites, Outlook Express e-mail.
This, of course, is less reliable than a real backup, but at home it can be very useful.
Real Mode is a thing of the past
One of the burdens of the past that is dragging on Windows 9x is the need to support Real Mode. As you know, processors inside a modern PC have long been operating in Protected Mode, which allows you to process 32-bit programs, have a multitasking mode, access large memory resources, etc. However, the same processors can also function in Real Mode, in which they emulate more primitive operation, which allows you to run 16-bit programs along with 32-bit ones. The presence of the above two modes supported in Windows 9x just allows you to run old 16-bit MS-DOS drivers for equipment that does not have 32-bit drivers under Windows 9x.
Windows Millennium is dropping Real Mode to improve reliability, performance, and simplicity. However, this also means that if you have an old peripheral that does not have Windows drivers and you want to load a DOS driver from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXAC.BAT instead of a Windows driver, then it will not work with Millennium. The two files mentioned above - CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXAC.BAT are a legacy from the days of DOS. They are present in Millennium in a rudimentary state because some older programs require them, but they are not handled during the system boot process. Another annoyance that lies in wait for the older generation of users is the inability to reboot into MS-DOS command line mode. The only option left for you to run a DOS program is to do so from the appropriate Windows panel. In general, the removal of Real Mode can be considered progressive - it not only adds performance to the system, but also makes it more reliable. The amount of equipment in the world that requires Real Mode is gradually decreasing, but it is quite possible that the situation in the Russian outback is the opposite.
If you have exactly such equipment, then, apparently, Millennium is not for you yet.
Certified device drivers
One of the problems with Windows 9x is related to the presence of uncertified device drivers from third party developers. A poor-quality driver can conflict with other software and even cause the Windows operating system to crash. In order to control the quality of drivers, last year Microsoft established a procedure for certifying third-party drivers. Drivers are submitted to Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). In the event that the program works normally, it is assigned the appropriate certificate, so that later the Windows operating system recognizes whether this driver is certified or not. Microsoft is working to completely eliminate the use of non-certified drivers, but has not yet been able to achieve this. In the case of Windows Millennium, you can install a non-certified driver into the program only if a certified one is not installed. Otherwise, the system prohibits the use of an uncertified program. This is a mild form of protection against untested software, however, this protection mode can also be disabled and any driver can be used.
File protection system
It is quite possible that you are familiar with the problem when, when installing a new program, old DLLs or some other critical files were overwritten when they were replaced with new ones, which, in the end, turned out to be incompatible with those programs that were installed earlier. As a result, applications do not work, and you have to climb into the wilds of information about the compatibility of certain programs against your will. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely fix the problem, because Windows is still somewhat vulnerable due to the support of third-party files.
Millennium, like Windows 2000, has a new SFP (for System File Protection System) feature that is designed to reduce these problems. When the installation program (or the user himself) changes the system files to files of other versions, SFP copies the original files and does not even warn about it, which later allows you to return to the necessary files.
Better game support
Windows Millennium has a new Application manager - specifically for managing games. This feature is very relevant for home applications. The number of users who use the computer for games is constantly growing. Games are becoming more and more large, take up huge disk space and require appropriate resources that need to be released periodically, while the user, when playing games, wants to be not a system administrator, but a cool macho who does not deal with files and disks, but with machine guns and machine guns. With the Application Manager installed, instead of asking the user where they want to install the game based on available disk space, the installer calls the Application Manager to "request" for a certain amount of space. As a result, the user has less and less time to administer the programs on his computer. However, the operation of the Application Manager is user-configurable, in particular, the user must specify which discs games can be written to and what percentage of the disk space they can occupy.
What is Millennium - in a nutshell
So, in a nutshell, what does Windows Millennium acquisitions come down to? In short, Windows Millennium can be described as the next step in the development of Windows 98, adding some elements of the Windows 2000 interface and making it as simple as possible for modern home use. New useful acquisitions are a system of self-healing (self-healing) and additions in terms of organizing a home network (Home networking). The most controversial innovations are the rejection of Real Mode and work with the MS-DOS command line. Windows Millennium has also acquired some of the modern features already available in Windows 2000, such as the SFP (system file protection) system.
So what do you choose: Windows 2000 or Windows Millennium?
If the above reasoning is not enough for you to answer this question, we will give a few more comments on this topic. It all boils down to what exactly you need. It depends on your financial possibilities and tasks to be solved. If you're a Windows 9x user and need a more stable OS and guaranteed data protection, you should consider Windows 2000 Professional. If you are mainly concerned with games, then you should not be in a hurry to upgrade to Windows 2000.
For home computer users running Windows 9x operating systems, Microsoft strongly recommends that you wait for the release of its next consumer operating system, Millennium. In the meantime, here's a quick summary of Microsoft's official recommendations on which operating system to use on your desktop computer: whether to use Windows 2000 Professional if you need the highest reliability for business continuity; enhanced security to protect data; the best computer support for mobile business and the best platform for next-generation business technology.
And accordingly, it makes no sense to use Windows 2000 and Windows 98 (SE) is enough if you need: optimal support for working with music and video; better support for computer games; ease of creating home networks and setting up the Internet; broad support for consumer hardware and software. On the one hand, the recommendations are quite clear, on the other hand, no matter how much you explain to people what the specifics of each of the areas are due to, there are always inquisitive users who ask: “How to get all this at once?”
ComputerPress 5 "2000
Windows Millennium Edition(Windows ME) - an operating system that supports both 16-bit applications and instructions and 32-bit ones, was released on September 14, 2000. It was named so in honor of the new new millennium (millennium - millennium).
Windows Me came out after Windows 98, in the new version of Windows MS-DOS was updated to version 8.0, Internet Explorer to 5.5 and Windows Media Player 7. There was a small built-in video editor Windows Movie Maker, which allowed you to compose amateur videos and make video editing. The interface has also been decorated and the icons of disks, computer, recycle bins and more have been updated.
We insert a disk or a bootable USB flash drive with the ability to install Windows Me. Set the download priority. To boot from a flash drive or disk. Choose to install the Windows ME system and press Enter.
Scanning of disks, PCI buses begins ...
To start installing Windows Me press Enter.
If the disk size exceeds 512 MB, then you need to enable support for large disks. Choose Yes, enable large disk support and press Enter.
The computer will restart, agree pressing Enter.
Choose Boot from CD-ROM(download from CD-Roma) and press Enter.
The formatting of drive C has begun, just wait for it to finish.
Preparations for installing Windows Millennium Edition have begun.
Launched the Windows Millennium Edition Setup Wizard, click Next.
The installer prepares the system folder and checks for free disk space to install Windows Me.
Now select the type of installation: Plain(suitable for most computers), Portable(Designed for laptop computers), abbreviated(Additional components are not installed, so it takes up less disk space), Selective(Designed for advanced users of system administrators. You can change any settings. After selecting click Next. I chose Custom.
You can choose which additional components do not need to be installed. I turned off accessibility (for people with disabilities) because my possibilities are limitless!! Click Next.
Inventing computer name, working group(needed for a local network, you need all computers to be in the same workgroup so that you can connect via LAN, I recommend leaving WORKGROUP), you can think of a description of the computer.
Choose the interface language Windows Me and click next.
Choose a country or region And click next.
Choosing a keyboard layout And click next.
Choose the time zone with and click next.
Created boot disk, it will be used by Windows Me if the system fails to boot normally.
To start copying Windows Me to disk, everything is prepared, it remains click Done.
The installation and copying of Windows Me to the hard drive begins.
Windows Millennium Edition has a small built-in video editor Windows Movie Maker, which allowed you to compose amateur videos and make video editing.
