Windows Millennium Edition Tips

Windows Me boots faster! - Freed from processing config.sys and autoexec.bat and displaying the whole MS-DOS user interface, Windows Me will boot up about 25 to 35 percent faster than Windows 98 - Shutdown times are also faster, about half that of Windows-98. YMMV

Maximum amount of RAM - Windows ME can recognize up to 2 gb (2,048 mb) of RAM.

If you choose to display hidden files in the folder options it has no impact on the protected files they will still remain hidden. To display all the files in a my computer window, click Tools/Folder Options/View and uncheck 'hide protected operating system files'.

Click start/settings/taskbar and start menu then uncheck 'use personalized menus'.

Right click on Start, select Open. Click on File, New then New Folder. Cut & paste in this as the name Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. You will now get a Start menu that appears as shown below. This will offer faster access to your Control Panel applets.

Arrange the screen display the way you want it then press the Print Screen key, then click inside the program where you want to paste the image (WordPad, Word, etc.) and press Ctrl-V to paste the screen image into the document window. You can also capture only the active window by pressing Alt-Print Screen instead of just Print Screen. This makes an image out of the foreground window only. This tip works with all Windows version not just Windows ME

If Media Player 7.0 doesn't play your digital video files as smoothly as the older Media Player did, you'll be happy to know that "MPLAYER2.EXE" (also known as Media Player 6.4) is still there. You'll find it in the "Windows Media Player" folder (in the C:\Program Files directory). If you want to go back to that version just re-associate your video formats to this player and it will be your new default media player in Win Me. You can do this by right-clicking a movie file, choosing "Open With..." and simply browsing to the MPLAYER2.EXE file. Click the "Always use this program to open these files" checkbox to set it as your new default.

To make a clean boot disk first: format a floppy disc, then go to the c:\windows\command\ebd folder, then copy the files io.sys and command.com to a: - reboot your computer with the floppy disc in the drive. This is also the technique you will use when updating the motherboard bios using real mode DOS.

Microsoft recommends that your PC includes at least a 150-MHz Pentium CPU to run Win Me and if you try installing WinME on a slower machine, you'll get an error message saying you'll need a faster processor, click OK to exit Setup. You can override the 150-MHz limitation by using the command setup /nm - you will still need 32 MB of RAM and adequate free hard-disk space. A typical installation requires 500 MB to 575 MB, but can range between 460 MB and 675 MB, depending on your system configuration and the options you choose to install - Windows-ME should run just as slow as Windows 98!

setup /? - list setup options.
setup /im - will ignore the memory limitations.
setup /nm - disables processor speed check.

Here's the fix: Launch MSConfig (Start/Run/"msconfig.exe", no quotes) and navigate to the win.ini tab. Scroll down to "Compatibility 95" and change the value of Point32 from 0x00000002 to 0x00080002. Click Apply, close MSConfig, and restart. In addition to this fix Microsoft will release new IntelliType software that is compatible with Windows ME.

One of the most significant limitations is that Microsoft has made it difficult to get at pure, vanilla DOS. It's not that ME doesn't use DOS - it does, just as every other member of the Win9x family does - this link Real DOS-Mode Patch for Windows Millennium will show you how you can restore access to real-mode DOS in WinME by using some files from the WinME Emergency Recovery Diskt.

Here's another site that offer a fix for restoring real mode DOS by using the DOS files from the Win98 boot disk: Windows Millennium DOS.

... And antoher DOS Fix for Windows Millennium

SysEdit isn't included with the Windows Millennium version, however you can extract from your Windows98 CD a copy and place it in your Windows\System folder. To extract the file follow these steps. Place your Windows98 disk in your CD-ROM drive. Click Start then Run and type in Msconfig, Msconfig should default to the General tab. Click the Extract File button and type in Sysedit.exe then click the Start button. In the Restore From: type in the path to your CD-ROM drive and the folder Win98 or Browse to the Win98 folder on the CD. In the Save file in, type: C:\Windows\System or use the Browse button to set the path to your Windows\System folder. Click the OK button, when it prompts to save a backup click Skip as there is no backup to save.

To gain a small speed improvement, go into the Display applet and then the effects tab. Under visual effects, disable everything except "Show icons using all possible colors." This will speed up menus, moving windows around, and a few other things as well.

Realigning your files can improve operating system and application speed by up to 10%. By aligning your files for Windows to make them run faster (the computer dynamically aligns all files loaded into memory anyway, so doing it beforehand saves CPU time) - There's a program that comes with Microsoft Office 2000 called OTUNEUP.EXE that does this process rather painlessly

Under TweakUI disabling all of the 'effects' will increase system performance by disabling extra animations and features within the operating system. Also setting the menu speed to fast will allow you to browse through the start menu and any right-click menus as quickly as possible.

Edit your system.ini file in the windows directory - under the [386Enh] heading Add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 This can significantly reduce Virtual memory use as it makes Windows use (fast) RAM before the (slow) Swapfile. This setting will tell Windows-ME not to use the swap file at all until all of the RAM is used. After all of the RAM is used, the computer will push most of the infrequently used data to the swap file. This is a great tweak. This is particularly beneficial for those with 256MB RAM. While you are there in the [386Enh] section, you might want to also add another couple of lines; DMABufferSize=64 to tweak DMA performance. This will conserve at least 64KB of memory to DMA (direct memory access) to reinsure that your DMA devices always have enough memory allocated. Note that this tweak should only be used if you have one or more DMA enabled devices on your system PageBuffers=32 This setting tells the computer to dedicate a certain amount of RAM to buffer the hard drive rather than allowing the operating system to dynamically handle the buffer. Windows dynamic handling of most memory issues is very inefficient, due to the large difference Windows sets between minimum and maximum values. 32 is the highest setting the operating system allows, so it is recommended that you use this value. LocalLoadHigh=1 This setting tells the operating system to load its local drivers into upper memory by default as opposed to trying to squeeze them into conventional memory. This is a good tweak if you have less than 128MB of RAM, but may actually hinder performance for those with 128MB or more - Test it for yourself to see which works best for you. Add these under [vcache] section: Minfilecache=XXXXX This will set the minimum value to how much swap file in KB your system will dedicate. To figure out what to replace XXXXX with, it is recommended that you take 10% of your RAM and multiply that number by 1024 (to convert to KB). For example, If you have 128MB of RAM, so 10% of 128 is 12.8. 12.8 multiplied by 1024 is 13107.2. I would then replace XXXXX with 13107. Maxfilecache=XXXXX This will set the maximum value to how much swap file in KB your system will dedicate. To figure out what to replace XXXXX with, it is recommended that you take 25% of your RAM and multiply that number by 1024 (to convert to KB). For example, If you have 128MB of RAM, so 25% of 128 is 32. 32 multiplied by 1024 is 32768. I would then replace XXXXX with 32768. *Note: Some people prefer to set their min and max filecache to the same value, so as to lessen the time the computer spends with the swap file when the swap file is in use. If you have large amounts of RAM, namely 256MB or more, you can easily set the min and max to the same size without worry. Chunksize=XXX This setting determines how large the chunks are that are allocated to each program residing in the vcache. A program can have more than one chunk, but if it doesn't divide evenly into the size of the chunk, some RAM goes unused (i.e. is fragmented). On one hand, having a smaller chunk size allows for less wasted RAM in the vcache, however, on the other hand, a larger chunk size increases the access speed for the vcache. Common values are 128, 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 . The rule of thumb is, if you have any newer monster multi-GigaByte size hard disk, you may want to set this value to "high": 2048 - 4096. If you don't work frequently with multi-MegaByte size files, you may want to set it to "low": 256 - 1024. Save the changes & reboot your system for the change to take effect.

Set file system to cache about 3 times higher than with the 'Network Server' default setting. MaxCache will use 128KB RAM and provide for 6144 Cached Files and 204 Directories. For comparision NetworkServer uses 40KB RAM and provides 2729 Files and 64 Direcroties. Download MaxCache.reg and when it ask you what you would like to do with this file tell it to 'Open this file from its current location.' Before using this registry file, please back up your registry file - DO NOT use if you do not know how to restore your registry file.

Edit the MSDOS.SYS file in your root directory (you may have to uncheck 'hide protected operating system files' in the Folder Options under View in the Control Panel for you to view Msdos.sys. Also, make sure you right click Msdos.sys, click properties, and then uncheck 'read-only' to be able to save this file once you have added these options) Add these under the [Options] section: Dblspace=0 This will tell the OS not to load the DoubleSpace compression program during boot up, thereby freeing up memory and reducing an unnecessary program from running. Do not use this if you are using have a compressed hard drive! Drvspace=0 This setting tells the OS not to load the DriveSpace compression program during boot up, thereby freeing up memory and reducing an unnecessary program from running. Do not use this if you are using have a compressed hard drive! Logo=0 This setting will disable the Windows start-up logo during boot, thereby reducing time to load. If you like the Windows logo, don't use this setting. Bootdelay=0 This setting tells the OS not to delay when switching from your BIOS POST to the OS boot up. Although most users already do not experience a delay, this guarantees that you have a zero delay. Disablelog=1 This setting will disable all event logging that occurs during boot up, thereby reducing the amount of time wasted to perform this task. If you wish to have your boot up logged, usually in order to find errors, do not use this setting. Doublebuffer=X This setting tells the computer whether or not to use double-buffering for your hard drive. If you have a large FAT32 partition or you use SCSI, I recommend that you enable this by inserting a 1 for the X. If you have a smaller FAT32 partition (under 10 GB per partition is a good rule) or you still use FAT16, I recommend that you disable this by inserting a 0 for the X.

Since Win-Me won't let you edit the config.sys file. In order to apply these settings, click Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then open System Information. Under tools, open the System Configuration Utility: Under the Environment Tab, click New and then enter this info: Variable Name: Variable Value: Stacks: 0,0 This will speed up the underlying kernel of Windows. This is a good tweak recommended for everyone. dos: high,umb Even though you'd think this wouldn't matter anymore, DOS still does play a role in how fast the operating system is and conserving whatever resources it might need is important.

Having trouble with icon refresh and display? Maybe your icon cache is too small. This patch will increase the IconCache setting. Download IconCache.reg and when it ask you what you would like to do with this file tell it to 'Open this file from its current location.'

1) Run Regedit

2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\ WINDOWS\CURRENT VERSION]

3) Double click on: RegisteredOwner

4) Type in any name you like.

This tweak will allow you to play DVD movies using Windows media player.

1) Run Regedit

2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ MediaPlayer\Player\Settings]

3) Create the following "String value": EnableDVDUI

4) Give it a value of: yes

Restart your PC and insert a DVD disk into your DVD drive, open Media player, click on File & Open DVD.

This tweak immensely helps slower computers trying to play DVD's from a DVDROM drive. 450 Mhz is considered a bit slow, but it is possible to get DVD playback without dropped frames. The CDFS Tweak is in the registry:

1) Run Regedit

2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Control\FileSystem\CDFS]

3) Set the following:

4) Reboot, and test your DVD playback.

	Unleash Media Player's Hidden Sharing Capabilities How to share music on your network: In Media Player, click Tools. Choose License Management. Select a shared folder on the network. Click Backup Now to back up your audio licenses to this shared folder. On a second PC, select the same folder using Tools, License Management. Click Restore Now. The second PC can now play the same audio tracks.
	Use Windows Me's System Restore Points Windows Me automatically creates a new Restore Point every 10 hours, or at least once every day. Restore Points are also created automatically when you install software that uses the Windows Install Shield or when Windows Me's Auto Update feature runs. You control System Restore by running the System Restore Wizard. Unlike a Backup-and-Restore process, rolling your PC back to a Restore Point doesn't affect any of your documents or data files. Note: you'll need a lot of disk space — by default, Windows Me assigns 200 MB to Restore Points, which saves only two to three days' worth.
	Windows Me Assisted Support Secrets Get help: Click Start. Choose Help & Support. Click Assisted Support. Click the System Information link. When System Information appears, click Tools for a handy drop-down list of utilities.
	Windows Me Makes Digital Imaging Easy Run WIA: Open the Cameras and Scanner control panel. Right-click your scanner or camera in the list. Click Properties. Select the Events tab. (If this tab does not appear, this device does not support linking to an application). In the Events list, select the event that will open the program. In the Run an Application list, select the program to start when this event occurs.
	Fit Webpages Onto a Single Printed Sheet Print Preview can help you fit a webpage onto a single printed sheet. To do this, increase or decrease IE's View Text Size before printing. Even better, you can use the Page Setup button that's right on the Print Preview toolbar to change the printed page's margins and make your material fit on a single page.

	Microsoft's Windows Me site
	Microsoft's Windows Update site
	Microsoft's Internet Explorer Update site
	Microsoft's Corporate Windows Update site
	Windows ME Central

	Windows 98/ME tweak guide
	CD\DVD tweaking guide
	Windows Registry guide
	Tweaking your System Memory guide
	Mouse tweak guide
	System Startup guide
	Air Flow Guide
	Internet Explorer tweak guide

	New Users - microsoft.public.windowsme.new-user
	General Discussion - microsoft.public.windowsme.general
	Display - microsoft.public.windowsme.display
	Hardware - microsoft.public.windowsme.hardware
	Internet - microsoft.public.windowsme.internet
	Multimedia - microsoft.public.windowsme.multimedia
	Networking - microsoft.public.windowsme.networking
	Printing - microsoft.public.windowsme.printing
	Setup - microsoft.public.windowsme.setup
	Software - microsoft.public.windowsme.software
	Games - microsoft.public.windowsme.games
	Movie Maker - microsoft.public.windowsme.moviemaker
	Systems Tools - microsoft.public.windowsme.systemtools
	Power Management - microsoft.public.windowsme.powermgmt

		Q269030 - How to Increase Available File Handles for MS-DOS-Based Applications in Windows Millennium Edition.
		Q264887 - How to Enable and Disable System Restore.
		Q267794 - Recently Saved Files May Not Remain in the My Documents Folder.
		Q265371 - How to Extract and Replace a Protected File in Windows Me.
		Q267176 - Unable to Access the System Restore Buttons If Screen Resolution Is 800x600 or Less.
		Q228548 - WINUP-Err Msg: Windows Update Was Disabled by Your System Administrator - ie. When you try to access the Windows Update Web site, you may receive one of the following error messages: "Your organization has decided to provide software updates internally rather than through Windows Update. To download updates for your Windows computer, please see your Network Administrator." or "Windows Update was disabled by your System Administrator."
		Q274847 - When you search for files or folders, you may not receive any search results.
		Q221438 - After you install Office 2000, you may notice files whose name begins with "fff" appearing in your Windows folder. For example, the file name may be similar to "fffeeecf_{44BE8B61-235B-11D2-8E66-D59A4E66D32D}.tmp". Also, every time you restart your computer, two more files beginning with "fff" appear in your Windows folder.