Hi Airdog, :-waveI have been watching this thread with interest and I am ready to toss in my nickel.I have two desktops, and 1 Laptop. My 300mz celeron runs Win98, My laptop runs Win98 SE, and my 1.2ghz athlon runs Wndows ME.With that said, here has been my experience. WinMe allows me to do more than win98, and I run the following devices all on one rig, my Athlon.1.2 GHZ AThlon512 mb sdramGeForce 2 GTS Pro 64mb Vid card19" Monitor1 CH USB Yoke1 USB Wingman Extreme Joystick1 CH USB Pro Rudder Pedals1 USB HP1215 Printer3 USB MP3 Players, (2 of the same make and model)1 USB Fuji Finepix 4900z Digital Camera1 Serial Palm 51 1 USB Mouse1 USB Keyboard1 USB QuickcamAll these run FANTASTIC on my WinMe system. The only way I am ever getting WinXP is if it comes bundled in a new system. Main reason is if it aint broke, certainly DO NOT FIX IT.If I got XP with all these devices, I am guessing if it will all work ok, plus I have programs and slaved Hardrives going back to Win95 with a ton of ancillary programs and files that may or may not work with WinXP. The big question is the MAYBE. There is no sure answer.I run an extremely clean system from virus protection to adblockers, firewalls, and cookie blockers.As for MSFS2002, it runs flawlessly on my system as does Fly!II. The only problems I have ever had with either sim has been my own doing and has been related to add-ons. Most people that run a clean system as far as maintenance goes, have had excellant results with WinMe. My suspicians on why people are having performance results with any upgrade is because they are then starting again with a clean system and the enhancement may be related to the cleansing of their system rather than the upgrade itself.In conclusion, If you can get WinMe on the cheap or free compared to XP, save yourself the cash and get WinXP the next time you buy a new computer.Now some above have stated WinMe's supposed gaming problems. While I have not experienced any, and with two boys and no Nintendo's or xbox or Playstation's in the house, let me say I have never run across a game I could not get to work. The problems are most likely do to the user and not the Operating system.And WinXP has quite a few devices that may not work on your machine, or you may have software that may no longer run. My suggestion is to Go to Microsoft's web site and run their proprietary software that will determine whether WinXP will run what you have installed on your system. With that knowledge in hand, only you can decide what is in your system's best interest.You should also make sure all your devices work and you can check them at MS's website here:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/how...ding/compat.aspI hope this helps a little as I do not have XP, but with WinME, my system rocks, my sims rock, and they run as designed without needing an upgrade.Best Regards,Joe :-wavehttp://home.attbi.com/~jranos/mysig.jpg http://avsim.com/hangar/air/bfu/logo70.gif

Hello!I used Windows ME for a long time, including with MSFS2K2, and had pretty good luck running MS Flight Simulator in it. That was as long as I kept on top of keeping my system in PEAK running condition to avoid occasional crashes with ME. (Not while running FS2K2 for the most part.)I have since went to XP Pro, and am even more happy with this OS. It is much more stable than Win 98/ME, and for my other uses, I like it much better. MSFS2K2 runs fine for the most part, but at a few slower FPS, and a bit more stuttering (related to my SB Live sound card.)But, as for running MSFS2K2, either ME or XP are just fine in my opinion.Happy Simming!Scott :-beerchugATP/CFII in the Real World :-rotor

I have ME and FS2K2 seems to run fine 90% of the time. I do have some lockups but overall it runs good. :-bluegrab

"nevermind" :-)

Hi Joe,Thanks for your very useful input.It certainly seems from the majority of responses that WinME is entirely acceptable, though perhaps not as good as WinXP.Given my circumstances, and the opportunity to upgrade to WinME, I reckon that's the way I'll go.Airdog

I work my WinME-based computer very hard. 3D rendering and graphics editing, digital audio multitrack recording, C++ development, numerous Direct3D games, etc.- David Sandberg