Windows Millennium Edition and Real-Mode Functionality (272488)

SUMMARY

Third parties have discussed how to restore some aspects of the Real-mode functionality in Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me). The use of third-party methods is neither recommended nor supported as Windows Me has not been tested with nor designed to run with Real-mode terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) drivers.

MORE INFORMATION

To find out if any workarounds that involve Real-mode functionality were performed on your Windows Millennium-based computer, you can either perform the first step or observe the second step, as follows:

Check the size of the Io.sys file in the root of the startup drive. The correct Io.sys file size is 107 KB. However, if the size of the Io.sys file is 114 KB, an unsupported configuration has occurred on your computer system. You can use a command prompt to determine the following file sizes:
Io.sys 110,080 - Windows Me (released version)
Io.sys 116,736 - Windows Me (unsupported version)
The Windows Me splash screen does not appear on your computer. When you restart your computer the following text displays at the top of the screen:
Starting Windows Millennium Emergency Boot ...
The Autoexec.bat and the Config.sys files run, and then the file located in C:\Windows\Win.com.

To return the client to its original (supported) configuration, you must perform the following steps:

Restart the computer with the Windows Me Startup disk. For additional information about how to create a Startup disk, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
267287 How to Create a Startup Disk in Windows Me
On the Start menu, select Minimal Boot.
At the a:\ prompt, type:
sys c:
Press Enter.
Remove the Startup disk and restart the computer.