Windows ME is more bloated than Windows 98SE and it has a half-baked
halfway-there implementation of some of the Windows NT/2000 stuff. The basic
Windows ME operating system and supporting software takes up more memory and
executes more slowly than Windows 98SE. The net results are more CPU cycles
than Win 98 to get the job done, and potentially more Windows swap file
activity.

The amount of system memory is an important factor here, too. A system running
Windows ME in only 64MB of memory will contemplate its navel somewhat
obsessively.

Windows ME is the least well regarded DOS-based version of Windows except
possibly for the original Windows 95A which really was beta software foisted off
on an unsuspecting public. Of course, you'll never hear any "official"
pronouncements from the Microsoft propaganda machine to this effect... Ben Myers

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 15:05:07 GMT, (Al) wrote:

Having just taken possession of this Presario 5000 with a Duron 800 and
running ME, I came across a web forum post where somebody was complaining
about how slow his similar machine was.

So I started up System Monitor and discovered that at idle, the cpu usage was
a whopping 35%. The machine was not even online at the time. So, using Task
Monitor, I closed out the bunch of programs had been started at bootup (I
assume most/all were by Comapq's default configuration). The cpu usage
actually went *up* to near 50%.

Any ideas on what is going on? Is it Win ME? My 500Mhz K6 running '98 idles
below 10%, and when online (with a winmodem) I am at under 20%. Thanks.