Windows ME's IO.SYS includes HIMEM.SYS, which it loads unconditionally. Since it is possible to decompress and disassemble IO.SYS, and hack it to enable full dos mode, can we go a step further and modify it to not to load the built-in himem.sys automatically?

Some info on decompressing and disassembling IO.SYS can be found here: Disassembling Windows IO.SYS