11th October 2000

Admittedly, Windows ME is more user friendly than its 9x predecessors (which is probably why, as a power user, I found it so aggravating to use). Example: ZIP archives can be managed without installing a third-party program. Functionality is severely limited, but it gets the job done. Another 'new' feature (found within Windows 2000, at least) is uncovered when a user selects a ZIP archive; Explorer's Status Bar will show how many files it contains. And, if there's a 'comment' inside, that will be displayed as well. Keep your eye on that Status Bar; truncated Office document details, shortcut target location paths, and various other infobits will appear there when the appropriate files are selected. The component is definitely more useful than it used to be.