The fourteenth of September 2000 marks an important month in the history of Microsoft in two respects. On the one hand the discontinuation of the emblematic MS-DOS, the famous operation system of a heroic age, was announced, on the other hand the Millennium Edition (ME), probably the least successful operating system in Windows’ history, was released. The ME, which caused a great deal of annoyance to users, was the last Windows based on the Windows 95 code base. Microsoft also announced that forthcoming operating systems would be built on Windows NT or Windows 2000 kernel.

The ME included a number of updates related to music, video, and home networks in order to directly target home users. A new feature of the ME was the system restore function that allowed users to revert their software configuration to a previous date when the system was still working properly. The Movie Maker offered basic utilities to digitally edit, save, and share home videos, while Media Player 7 technologies allowed users to search for, organise, and play digital media files in a simple way.

It was generally thought that the ME was not a new operating system in its own right but rather it was the latest update of Windows 98 (second edition), and at the same time there were serious compatibility problems between 9x and the ME.

The period of product support for the ME ended on 11 July 2006.