Diane,

Except for this paragraph, everything below was written before I saw your post about returning to
Win 98se. I'm sorry to see you've been convinced to return to Win SE without having been given
anything but negative advice about Win ME. So, for what it's worth, here's my two cents worth. I'm
hoping someone like DG, with real knowledge, will decipher what I'm about to say, and put it in
better terms
than I have...

-----------

I get a huge kick out of those who know nothing about Win ME, have never used it,  yet persist in
knocking it. First of all, Win ME is superior to Win 95 in almost every aspect. Win 95 had to be
handled with 'kid gloves' just to keep it running. It was terribly un-secure and crashed constantly.
Moving to Win 95 would be the "down-grade". Win ME is far more stable and, once tweaked, requires
far less baby-sitting then Win 95 ever did. If security is an issue, people need to be looking to
move to an NT platform, which is why MS moved us along to Win 2K, then Win XP.

Second, I get an even bigger kick from those who compare Win 98, in any flavor, with Win ME. For the
record, Win ME is Win 98, with a few added bells and whistles intended for those who prefer superior
multimedia in any format. Win ME was not a "patch for Win 98", in fact it was the exact opposite.
The single biggest problem with Win ME is the buggy "Restore" feature, which BTW, was intended to
UNDO all the problems associated with WIN 98. Although it was a good idea, it was not developed
well, and thus is more problematic then it's worth. Regular backups and a clean registry do far more
to keep Win ME running smoothly. The first thing one should do is disable 'Restore'.

If I recall correctly, using the Microsoft Office Toolbar in any operating system will use a lot of
resources. This, along with 'Fast Find', are MS Office-related resource hogs, and have nothing to do
with Win ME. It's better to create shortcuts to your programs and place them on your Quick launch
toolbar. A good way to determine what uses up resources is to run msconfig, select the 'startup' tab
and remove anything you recognize as unused. Even if you find something you use a lot while there,
you still don't need it starting every time you start your machine. Determine what the program is
and put a shortcut to it as described above. Most of what you find on the startup tab can be
disabled without causing problems. However, you need to be sure of what you're disabling before you
do so. That requires a little more research, but it's better than 'trial and error'. Things that are
security-related, such as Zone Alarm and antivirus programs aren't much good unless they startup
automatically, and therefore, should not be removed from msconfig. Don't be discouraged by the
rumors about Win ME - I've used Win ME for over two years and I have no resource problems.
( And I have *only* 128 MB RAM ). hth

Al Thompson

----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Kroeckel"
Subject: [PCSOFT] Resources/Memory


> Dear Listers,
>
> I just posted this, but fogot to add that I just upgraded from Win98se.
> I have 320MB of ram and a 40GB Hard drive with 14GB used and am running a
> AMD 400 MHz.  I already went into MSconfig and unchecked some stuff.
>
> I just upgraded to WinME and am having resource problems.  I'm using the
> Microsoft Office Toolbar.  Does that use a lot of resources?  Should I
> just move everything to my desktop, or better, to the Quick Launch Bar?
> I have a lot of room on my hard drive.
>
> Also, does WinME use more memory?  I'm using MaxMem.  Does that really
> work or just use up resources?
>
> Thanks.
>
>  Diane Kroeckel

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