[ Thanks to Doug
Bostrom for this link. ]
“Microsoft today confirmed that users will have no easy way to
update system BIOSes after upgrading to Windows Millennium or
Windows 2000. M$ commendable aim of removing all those dangerous
command line bits has an unfortunate side effect – there’s no way
to build the bootable floppy needed by BIOS upgrades.”
“While BIOS upgrades were once rare, fixes to processor and
chipset errata mean that these days an update is available every
month or so and users sticking with the original BIOS shipped with
their systems will inevitably be suffering performance and
reliability problems.”
“Windows ME is designed to make the users’ life easier. But in
the vital area of keeping the BIOS up to date, it’s making it damn
near impossible. It seems the only sure way of being able to create
a boot floppy in the future is to keep an ancient 286 system in a
cupboard and bring it out when you need to write one.”