Windows ME
| A version of the Windows 9x operating system | |
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Windows ME desktop, including taskbar and shortcuts
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| Developer | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Source model | Closed source |
| Released to manufacturing |
June 19, 2000 |
| General availability |
September 14, 2000 |
| Latest release | 4.90.3000 / September 14, 2000 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| License | Commercial software |
| Preceded by | Windows 98 (1998) |
| Succeeded by | Windows XP (2001) |
| Support status | |
| Mainstream support ended on December 31, 2003 Extended support ended on July 11, 2006 |
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Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows ME (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me", but commonly pronounced as an initialism, "M-E"), is a graphical operating system from Microsoft released to manufacturing in June 2000, and launched in September 2000. It was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series.
Windows ME was the successor to Windows 98 and was targeted specifically at home PC users. It included Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 7, and the new Windows Movie Maker software, which provided basic video editing and was designed to be easy to use for home users. Microsoft also updated the graphical user interface, shell features, and Windows Explorer in Windows ME with some of those first introduced in Windows 2000, which had been released as a business-oriented operating system seven months earlier. Windows ME could be upgraded to Internet Explorer 6 SP1 (but not to SP2 (SV1) or Internet Explorer 7), Outlook Express 6 SP1 and Windows Media Player 9 Series. Microsoft .NET Framework up to and including version 2.0 is supported; however, versions 2.0 SP1, 3.x, and greater are not. Office XP was the last version of Microsoft Office to be compatible with Windows ME.
Windows ME is a continuation of the Windows 9x model, but with restricted access to real mode MS-DOS in order to decrease system boot time. This was one of the most unpopular changes in Windows ME, because applications that needed real mode DOS to run, such as older disk utilities, did not run under Windows ME (although the system could either be booted into real mode DOS using a bootable Windows ME floppy disk or the configuration could be tweaked manually to re-enable access to the underlying MS-DOS).
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