After a lot of work to remove viruses, malware and adware as well as multiple hi-jacks, Windows 98 (not even Win98SE) is still very slow to boot. Any ideas about how I might 'restore' the system to its original boot time without reinstalling the OS? I have a legacy program that I need to keep and will lose if I reinstall Windows.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

I assume that you have defragged regularly? That makes a difference. Also, you can disable things that you don't need running. Unfortunately, the more programs and features that you add, the slower it gets. The only way to get Windows to boot as quickly as it did new is to reinstall it new. As soon as you start adding things, it means more things to scan, more jobs to do.

Yeah,might be getting short on disk space/,too many programs starting up with
windows?-disable ALL of the non-windows apps & if that don't do it disable all the
optional windows stuff from starting too.From memory(which cn't be trusted ) 98
only NEEDS sys tray & explorer-but you can disable 1x1 to # that out in MSCONFIG
You absolutely don't need screensavers,graphic stuff etc-all resource hogs.TRY
starting with StepXstep confirmation & only enter what is necessary.Enable stuff
once you're into windows using shortcuts,which I have on (very cluttered )desktop
Try removing optional windows stuff in +- programs,I dumped the LOT cos it's
obviously not indispensable.