I have windows 98 installed on my computer. I have the Windows ME CD Rom. I put the Windows ME cd in the CD Rom drive but it said that I cant load Windows ME over the current OS. It says I need the Windows ME Upgrade thing. How do I change operating systems without getting the Windows ME Upgrade and just use my Windows ME cd? thanks!

Slapshot2761: Don't do it!!! Stay with Windows 98. Windows ME is well known to be the most problematic of all "true" Windows operating systems.

I agree that an ME upgrade is a bad idea. My son upgraded me from 98SE to ME a year ago. The old system was MUCH MORE stable. I spent a lot of time upgrading drivers & tuning to maximize 'system resources'. After a lot of work, ME is still not as stable as 98SE. The ME system hangs for no obvious reason and I can't get to Task Manager. This doesn't happen every day, but still too often. As far as I know, there is no good reason to change from 98SE to ME. If you don't have SE, upgrade from 98 to 98SE.

I have to agree. Been using Me for a year and have no problems with it but; SE caused me fewer problems and the learning curve was easier. The 98 to 98SE upgrade is a good idea. If you just have to install Me, as far as I know, you won't be able to do it with the full version or OEM disk you have. There is no setup switch I can find for Me to bypass this. Alternative is to format disk (or deleting everything that refers to Win98) and then installing Me. That's pretty involved and results in having to reinstall all motherboard drivers, hardware drivers, programs and applications. Sure you want to do all that?

i run 4 machines... 3 xp and one ME. I went from 98 to ME. I havent had any problems with ME at all. But i realize i am the exception. I see little to no difference in my previous 98 install and the ME installed now....but thats the point...I SEE NO DIFFERENCE. So why bother? Im going to uninstall one of the XP's and reinstall 98, but thats another forum...i frankly dont like xp much at all.

Crash, I've actually had few problems with Me. I use it for the added features and drivers. It's a must on my laptop so I use it at home too. Took awhile to patch "DOS" up so I was able to run some programs I need for work. That's why I spoke of the steeper learning curve. It's nice that I can plug in any card reader, camera, scanner or printer I've run across so far and have it load a driver that makes it work. If 98se could do that, I'd still be using it. A quick try with XP on the laptop didn't last long on a 366/256Mb/8MB video card. Felt like the Dell was about half enough a machine to run XP well enough to fool with. I also was unimpressed. Skip

yes Skip!! you did hit on the advantages of ME. Resouces are not the problem i had on my laptops... all three are better computers than the desk top im on now...pentium 4,1.4 GHZ, 1 gig ram, 40 gig HD, burners...the whole 9 yards... i wireless network them to my ME desktop. My tech rolled his eyes when i sugested that i do that... didnt say it wouldnt work, just didnt think it was worth the malfuntions. I went 4 months without reboot on ME and Im still happy with it. The xp,s on the other hand, they freeze, want updates, wont work with 90% of the software i use for work, so ive got work arounds and jerry rigs to get by on, and thats AFTER every #%&$@!! update mirosoft can throw at me. Some day, some one will get an OS right. crash