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By Celery504 - MAIL THE AUTHOR Test System: - Celeron 300A @ 504MHz It was a breeze. I had upgraded to Millennium from Windows 98SE. It took only 3 reboots (same amount Windows 98 SE takes), and it retained all of my previous settings from Windows 98SE. First off, it copied the files onto my system. First reboot. Then, it configured all my hardware. Second reboot. Lastly, it configured my system settings. Final reboot. The whole process took less than 15 minutes. I was very impressed.
Startup A very noticable improvement indeed. Startup was significantly faster than Windows 98SE. Definitely an honorable mention. User Interface Since I had upgraded from Windows 98SE, it had retained all of my previous settings. So once setup was complete and I was back in Windows again, everything looked familiar. No major modifications were made except there were a few newly added icons, such as Online Services and MSN Setup, and the new look that was given to the icons of My Computer, My Network Places, and Recycle Bin. They were the same ones which are used in Windows 2000. A couple of clicks into the start menu made me realize that this is shocking similar to Windows 2000. I like the way they've rearranged some of the items in the start menu, because if offers easier access to commonly used programs and settings Internet Explorer 5.5 And DirectX 7.1 Beta 2 of Millennium was distributed with Internet Explorer 5.5 and DirectX 7.1. Microsoft is aiming for the final shipment of Millennium to include either Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0, along with either DirectX 7.1, or 7.1a. Details are still sketchy, for nothing has been carved into stone. Redesigned Help Menu And AutoUpdate The newly redesigned Help menu sports a simplified browser look. On the top of the Window are toolbar buttons offering tours & tutorials, forward and back button, etc. The rest of the Window contains links which provide help to troubleshoot problems, narrowing down results with each selection. There is even a search engine which scours through the help database, making Help more efficient and less frustrating on the user. If you're connected to the internet, every once in a while, a program by the name of AutoUpdate will come up on your screen. It'll notify you that an update is avaiiable, and you have the option to ignore it, download it, or be reminded of later. This feature is a wonderful amendment to the existing Windows Update for the user does not need to manually check for updates, because they're automatically provided.
SFP (System File Protection) This is a newly integrated feature which prevents installers and users from modifying or deleting critical system files. If an installer or user copies over or deletes one of these files, SFP automatically copies the original back in its place without any notification. SFP is a standard feature and cannot be turned off. This is part of the "self healing" technology included in PC Health. System Restore This is another significant feature incorporated into Windows Millennium. It is called System Restore and it actively monitors system file changes, and records them. It is also part of the "self healing" technology included in PC Health. This feature enables you to restore your system to a previous state of being if anything were to occur. It keeps a rolling log of the most recent system state, before any modifications, or during every 24 hours. If there is at least 200MB of free space avaliable, System Restore is enabled by default. This is a great feature, and you know it's bound to save some serious ass! Performance And Stability Windows Millennium is surprisingly stable, compared to the previous versions of 9x. Although it is not as stable as Windows 2000, I believe that this is the best they can do, under a 16/32-bit environment. The performance has increased in general. It is a noticable increase as applications load up faster, and there is a smoother transaction between multitasking applications. Memory management has also improved, and it can be seen through the amount of resources which is taken up when a program is loaded. Beta 2 has truly impressed me.
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