First of all. let me clear up some confusion. Many people think that "Windows ME" and "Windows 2000" are the same. It was a mistake to name these completely different operating system such similar titles. Windows ME is Windows 98 with a few updates. It is designed for home users. Windows 2000 was designed for businesses, although many home users are using it for it's increased stability.
I recently started using and studying Windows 2000 for my up and coming MCSE tests. Since many people are not familiar with this "new" operating system, I decided to share my first impressions. Let me start by listing some things that I heard about Windows 2000 before I started using it:
More than likely, you'll have to replace hardware on your computer as many devices are not compatible
Many programs, including games, do not run on Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is difficult for the average person to use
Windows 2000 is slow and is a "resource hog"
I first wanted to load Windows 2000 Professional on my main computer, the Hewlett Packard. It has a 466 Celeron, 256 MB of RAM, on-board video, and sound/modem combo expansion card. I went to Hewlett Packard's website to see if everything was compatible. The only piece of hardware that was not immediately compatible was the Riptide sound/modem combo expansion card. But, of course, they provided the new driver to download. After loading Windows 2000, everything worked except for the Riptide card, which worked fine after installing the new driver. I have also loaded Windows 2000 Professional on my old Packard Bell Pentium 120 with no hardware problems. And I loaded 2000 Server on a new Duron 750 system I built. On that one, it did not plug and play the sound or video drivers that were on the motherboard. However, the motherboard came with a CD with the 2000 drivers. Windows 2000 did not plug and play my printer or scanner. The software for the printer didn't have the driver, but it was on the Windows 2000 CD. The scanner's software had the 2000 driver.
So far, every program that I have loaded has been completely compatible with Windows 2000. The only program I didn't load was Easy CD creator 3, as I found that it isn't compatible. For CD burning, you need Easy CD 4 or later, or you can you use Nero. At this time, I have not loaded any games. I will try to load all the games I had used on Windows 98 to see if they still run. I will update this page afterward.
Windows 2000 Professional
The very first thing you will notice is when clicking the Start button, the menus fade in, rather than shooting out. You can configure the old way if you miss it. Another change is that there are Wizard for everything. If you are one of those people who still likes DOS, I imagine this will make you sick. However, they do make some tasks easier. Another feature is that after you use it for a while, it remember what programs you load and what Internet Explorer favorites you use. Then, when you hit the Start button or hit favorites on Internet Explorer, it will show only the things you use most often. A simple click will bring up the rest. Some other improvements include support for DirectX and compatibility with Fat32. Windows 2000 also comes with a great defragmenting program that was created by Executive software, the makers of Diskeeper. Diskeeper used to be the only utility available to defragment NTFS partitions (Norton's Speed Disk 2001 now also does NTFS.) My parents, who share my main computer did not notice any real difference for what they do from Windows 98. I think anyone could use Windows 2000, provided that a computer knowledgeable person does the upgrade.
Windows 2000 Server
The first thing you'll notice about Server is that there are more Wizards then Professional. After a while, you will start to notice that they make things easier than in Windows NT. There are many more Administrative Tools than in NT. You can use them or a custom made "MMC" administer your computer/network. They bring up "snap ins" which resemble Windows Explorer. If you don't use a Wizard to do something, you are probably using a snap in. These snap ins take a little while to get used to, but again, many tasks seem easier than doing the same in NT. Using the MMC, will actually add more options to the Administrative Tools.
I found a neat program called TClockEx (available for free download at hotfiles.com.) With it, you can tweak the fonts/color/size of the clock. However, it also has some basic system monitors, including one for RAM. I always have a monitor running in the taskbar that show that amount of available RAM in MB. It is pretty accurate. When it hits zero, you can hear the pages on the hard drive. Using Windows 98 SE, with 196 MB of RAM was okay for normal operations, but when I was multitasking, scanning, or converting MP3's to wave files, I would quickly run out of RAM. Even after upgrading to 256 MB, I would still run out every now and then. After loading Windows 2000 Professional, it usually wind up with 140-160 MB available. It rarely goes down below 100. It has never reached zero. In other words, IT HAS YET TO HIT THE PAGE FILE! The closest I got was after scanning 20 picture sin a row, it got below 20. However, after I accidentally minimized a window and restored it, the RAM jumped back to 140 MB available. The explanation for this difference in RAM use is that Windows 2000 is designed to manage the memory that you have in a much better way than in Windows 98 does. I'm getting sick of people telling me Windows 2000 is a "resource hog."
Another problem I had with Windows 98 is that I had to reboot it often to correct problems, such as system crashes. I would estimate that I had to do this at least 3 times a week. (If I used my scanner, I would automatically reboot the computer, since this caused it to not be able to come back out of standby, for example.) After using Windows 2000 for more than a month, I think I rebooted it once for a system problem. Another feature of Windows 2000 is that many tasks, like changing the size of page file, do not require reboots. Also, you don't have to reload Service Packs every time you change something. In fact, you never had to reload a Service Pack.
There some things I didn't like about Windows 2000. First of all, they changed the icons. They look like cartoon drawings of the icons in 95/98/NT. They are very cheesy looking. I have been having problems with the sound on my computer. The volume control is very touchy. Moving it about 1/8 the way up way like moving it all the way up in 98. At the same time, I can't get the microphone volume up high enough.
My last beef is with Standby. This is a great feature, where you are supposed to leave your computer alone, it will automatically shut off your monitor, your hard drive, and put your computer in a "sleep" mode, where it supposedly uses the same amount of electricity as if you shut it down. (A computer still uses electricity when you shut down. You would have to click the main power switch in the back of your computer to shut it completely off.) Getting standby to work in Windows 98 was very difficult. Doing something as simple as changing your wallpaper could effect Standby. I never got the computer to automatically go into Standby. I could do it by going into Start>Shutdown>Standby. I was really hoping that Microsoft would improve Standby with Windows 2000. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that way. The same computer that would go into Standby with Windows 98 will not go with Windows 2000. I can force it into Standby like I did before, but I can't get it to wake. If I tap the reset button, it does wake, but this messes with the volume control. One time the speaker was blasting static at full volume. If I can get it to work, I'll update this section.
Windows 2000 isn't for everyone. It was designed as a business application. It is true that some hardware and software is not compatible. You may be able to download new drivers off the internet, or you may have to replace some things. Check the internet to see if your computer and software you use is compatible. Most games and hardware made n the past couple of years will be compatible or will have updates that you can download.
For the average user, I would recommend that you keep using Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE. I don't recommend Windows ME, as it overworks your computer. If most of what you do it use the internet, e-mail, word processor, and games, you don't need Windows 2000. However, if you do more than the average user, you may want to consider Windows 2000. If you are an MCP/MCSE or studying to be an MCP/MCSE, you should definitely be using it on your main computer. The main advantage with Windows 2000 over Windows 98 is it's stability. It won't crash on you, and you won't be rebooting it all the time. Windows 2000 also does not seem to use as many recourses as Windows 98.
If you're not very experience with operating systems, but still want to use Windows 2000, please have a more experienced person help you upgrade. You probably will want to back up everything important before you do an upgrade.