EPIC FAIL FRIDAYS: Windows ME

Every Friday, Ziggytek presents a special article featuring the most epic fails in technological history. Released on September 14th 2000 as Microsoft’s feeble attempt to bridge tomorrow’s technology with yesteryear’s hardware was Windows Millennium Edition (ME). Remember this piece of garbage? Microsoft slotted this embarrassment into its extremely successful consumer operating systems, Windows ‘98 and XP. Looking back, Windows ME is usually deemed to be the worst operating system ever made (relative to its time).

Measured against many older operating systems, ME was not quite as pathetic, but in its day, it was unequaled in terribleness. The scourge of the poor folks who unfortunately installed it on their computers, ME took Microsoft backwards. Windows ‘98 went a long way towards reassuring the public that Microsoft actually knew what it was doing, but then this sorry excuse for a sequel arrived. Just why was ME so awful?

For starters, ME was merely Windows ‘98 underneath, using the same kernel, but was bloated with extra visuals and effects, which bogged down systems and made them less stable. The Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) that has made Microsoft notorious ran rampant on every machine operating with ME. Not since Windows ‘95 had people experienced so many catastrophic crashes, but unlike with ‘95, ME did not offer the same DOS compatibility that some people still required, and unlike ‘95, it was the year 2000! Back then, we were used to installing specialized drivers for pretty much every minor peripheral we added, and ME made life a mess for all hardware installations, often crashing during standard driver updates.

System Restore was a new feature, and it was a bright idea, but sadly, its execution in ME was poor because if users set a restore point with a virus on the drive, a system restore also brought the virus back. Thank you very much.

Perhaps what made ME so unacceptable was because it was less reliable than ‘98 before it, and its contemporary, Windows NT was so much better in every single facet. Basically, Microsoft tried (and succeeded) to sell an operating system that was far worse than what was already available. Shame on Microsoft for peddling this abomination. Windows ME is Microsoft’s mistake that it wished never happened (sort of like Vista but nowhere near as good):

I was one of the lucky few who gave up on ME quickly and reverted back to ‘98 until XP went on sale. Plenty of others were not so fortunate.