Boot Magic works perfectly well with Win Me as do any other boot manager.
To say otherwise is total rubbish.

It seems your problems are having are self-generated.
--
Mike Maltby



ASTROJAZ wrote:

Tried that - many times, and many ways. Installed DOS-6 on C: drive,
followed by install of ME on D: drive (i.e. an Extended Partition),
and also had an extra copy of DOS-6 on another E: drive extended
partition. This was all on the same physical hard drive, of course.
Boot Magic doesn't work with ME, because it declares C: as a "DOS or
Win98" boot - it can't distinguish between them - and ignores the E:
drive altogether. When I select the former, Boot Magic doesn't know
about the DOS/ME being different in this respect from old Win98, and
merrily launches DOS - which immediately goes to Win-ME because Dual
Boot with DOS isn't normally allowed.
Boot Magic really isn't that sophisticated - it just launches
whatever was installed on C: drive - and that is the problem. You
still need to solve the Microsoft Dual Boot issue on your own.

Luckily with your prompting, I googled through over 300 websites on
the DOS-WIN-ME dual boot problem, and found one very simple, and
quite commonly known, PATCH utility that effectively converts WIN-ME
into what "would have been" Win-98 service pack #3. It works great.
The patch brings back the F4 key to boot to "previous operating
system" (DOS), and goes back to the swapping of .W40 and .DOS files
depending on which one you were in - just like WIN-98SE. Initally you
do lose the SAFE MODE option, but that can be gotten by choosing
Shift F5 for Step by step, and decline to install Windows Drvers -
which opens Win Safe Mode. Or, much simpler, you can add a line to
the Autoexec.bat "WIN d:/m" which also launches Safe Mode.

In my very brief testing, I found I could F4 to start up in
DOS-6.22,
type in the command "WIN" - which launched Win 3.11 that I happened
to have also installed on C:drive during my testing. Or I could
choose to "Start with Command Prompt" - which got me into DOS-8
(Win-ME version). Or finally, I could simply launch into Win-ME.
There you have it - a choice of 4 O/S's with this patch. But at least
it mainly givs me a chance to very occasionally use DOS-6 for a
specific application program, and yet not waste the laptop, but use
Win-ME, most of the time, for reall daily work. Just what I needed.

Several of those sites confirmed that DOS was indeed "removed" in
Win-ME because that was intended as the first real "Office Product",
and it would be far too dangerous, after 20 years of open use, to
let the common folk have access to the powerful commands in DOS. In
fact, Microsoft told a "little white lie" - as they often do - they
did NOT really remove DOS, but merely "hid it away" - which the patch
uncovers, and makes WIN-ME dual boot with DOS - without the need for
Boot Magic.

Here are the links for the PATCH - they contain nearly identical
information. There is also a lot of vehement discussion on the web,
about these patches, by O/S and GUI purists. No matter - it works,
and addresses a need for some of us.
But DEFINITELY - this is the last kick at the DOS can, since all
O/S's after Win-ME do not provide any DOS access, short of putting a
copyof DOS on a seperate physical drive, and using Boot Magic.

(1)
"Real DOS-Mode Patch for Windows Millennium
By Reines [MFD]"
http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/

(2)
"Has Real-mode DOS been removed
from Microsoft's Windows ® Millennium Edition?"
http://www.dewassoc.com/support/winme/real_dos.htm