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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 SE 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Overview of Real Mode Removal from Windows Millennium Edition )〕 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). ==History== In 1998, Microsoft said that there would be no version of Windows 9x after Windows 98. In May 1999, however, Microsoft released Windows 98 Second Edition, and then announced a new version of Windows 9x which was later revealed to be codenamed Millennium. In 2000, this was released as Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME). At least three beta versions of Windows ME were available during its development phase. On September 24, 1999, Microsoft announced that Windows Millennium Beta 1 was released.〔 Windows Millennium Beta 2 was released on November 24, 1999, and added a couple of new features such as System File Protection and Game Options Control Panel. Several interim builds were released between Beta 1 and 2, and added features such as automatic updates and personalized menus. Beta 3 was released on April 11, 2000, and this version marked the first appearance of its final version startup and shutdown sounds (derived from Windows 2000), as the previous betas used Windows 98 SE's startup and shutdown sounds. The final version boot screen was first featured in Beta 3 build 2513. The general availability date of Windows Millennium Edition was December 31, 2000. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Millennium Edition on December 31, 2003, and extended support ended on July 11, 2006. Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE Extended support ended the same day. Windows ME also contained the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which caused it as well as Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE to be pulled from the Microsoft Developer Network at the end of 2003.〔Paul Thurrot - (Microsoft to Retire Windows 98, Others ). eWeek, 8 December 2003〕 At launch time, Microsoft announced a time-limited promotion from September 2000–January 2001 which entitled Windows 95 or Windows 98 users to upgrade to Windows ME for $59.95 instead of the regular retail upgrade price of $109.〔 Shortly after Windows ME was released on June 19, 2000, Microsoft launched a campaign-initiative to promote Windows ME in the U.S., which they dubbed the ''Meet Me Tour''. A national partnered promotional program featured Windows ME, OEMs and other partners in an interactive multimedia attraction in 25 cities across the U.S. It was launched on September 14, 2000. Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows ME had a short shelf-life of just over a year. Microsoft aimed to make ME the first consumer Windows OS based on the NT kernel. However, this did not happen and Windows ME was rushed to the market after the Neptune project was canceled. Windows ME was often criticized for being buggy, slow and unstable. Windows ME, along with Windows 2000, were soon replaced by the NT-based Windows XP, which was launched on August 24, 2001. Mainstream support for Windows ME ended on December 31, 2003, and extended support ended on July 11, 2006,〔 at the same time as Windows 98. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Windows ME」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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