Windows Me - Relation To Other Windows Releases

Relation To Other Windows Releases

Windows Me was complemented by NT-based Windows 2000, which was aimed at professional users. Both operating systems were succeeded by Windows XP with their features unified. All Windows Me support, including security updates and security related hotfixes, was terminated on July 11, 2006. Support for Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE was also terminated on that date. Microsoft ended support for these products because the company considers them obsolete and running these products can expose users to security risks.

Many third-party applications written for earlier editions of Microsoft Windows, especially older games, run under Windows Me but not under Windows 2000. This fact has become less relevant with the sharp decline in popularity of Windows Me after the release of Windows XP, which features a compatibility mode which allows many of these older applications to run.

If an installation CD-ROM from the Windows 2000 family is inserted into the drive of a computer running Windows Me, the user is prompted to upgrade to Windows 2000 because Windows Me has an older version number than Windows 2000. While this is not technically so (Windows Me was released several months after Windows 2000), Windows Me is in fact derived from the older, monolithic MS-DOS codebase (Windows 4.x) while Windows 2000 is the first of the NT 5.0 family, making the latter an upgrade.

Windows 2000 cannot, however, be upgraded to Windows Me. If an installation CD-ROM from Windows Me is inserted while running Windows 2000, the user will receive an error message that Setup cannot run from within Windows 2000. The user is prompted to shut down Windows 2000, restart the computer using Windows 95 or 98, or start MS-DOS and then run Setup from the MS-DOS command prompt.

Windows XP, which is NT-based, became the successor to Windows Me. It also closed the gap between consumer Windows and Windows NT. In addition, no service packs for Windows Me were released.

Along with Windows 2000 from the NT family, Windows Me was the last version of Windows that lacked product activation.

Windows Me was the last operating system to be based on the Windows 9x (monolithic) kernel and MS-DOS.

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