If you wish to set up an older computer for use with DOS programs, we recommend you use nothing later than Windows 98 SE.įeature-wise, Windows ME changes the desktop appearance to be on par with Windows 2000. Many Windows 95 and 98 users had relied on that, as many popular games and utilities were still DOS based. Additionally, users were becoming used to the increased stability of Windows 2000 (NT 5.0) and the new MacOS X.Īlthough Windows ME still runs on top of DOS, just like Windows versions back to 1.01, it crippled the ability to start up to or exit to DOS. While existing 98 drivers usually 'worked', they were often buggy and unstable under ME. However with the news that this architecture was at an end, vendors did not update their Windows 98 drivers for Windows ME. Microsoft had made numerous internal changes at the device driver level. Windows ME was often criticized for its poor stability. Like Windows 95 and Windows 98 it used the same hybrid 16/32 bit kernel that ran on top of a bundled version of DOS (MS-DOS 8.0).
Windows Millennium Edition (internally Windows 4.90) was the last in the line of DOS-based Windows products.
