Bear in mind I'm not very computer savvy..
Okay well, yesterday we had a bad storm, my computer was on and I was just about to turn it off when the power went out. So I start it back up when we got power again, and found that avant browser doesn't want to load past the splash screen and certain programs (Spybot, AIM, MSN, Yahoo - not sure about other ones) have reset themselves to their default settings. I've tried to make the usual changes to them and most of the time they don't apply, and when they do they reset themselves again after me having restarted the computer!

IE and Windows Media Player wound up putting icons in the quicklaunch bar and in my start>programs menu, and when I'd delete them they'd come right back after restarting. And when I say restarting I mean a complete shut down and then turning it on again.

MSN didn't start at all from the start menu. It gave an error saying something like "it doesn't exist", and I couldn't uninstall it from Add/Remove programs and such, which it gave me the "this action is only valid for products that are currently installed" message. It did finally run from its Program Files folder which I ended up removing (probably shouldn't have) and it wouldn't install anyway saying "Could not open key: UNKNOWN\Installer\Products\C838BEBA7A1AD5C47B1EB83441068061. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel." Just as it did when I was trying to update the Java Runtime Environment earlier to do a Trend Micro scan..

The main problem right now is just getting it to stop reseting after each shutdown.
I've run Ad-Aware and Spybot at least twice and ran Scandisk and defrag'd last night. But nothing seems to have improved.

Any help for this 6-year old win98se machine?
Thanks.

You might try resetting the registry to an earlier version. Windows keeps five copies of the registry, once each day that you start it, removing the oldest and adding a new one. You need your Windows 98 startup disk. Start the computer from the floppy, then from the A: prompt type:

C:

. . . and hit enter. Then, from the C:\> prompt, type:

scanreg /restore

. . . and hit enter. There is a space between the "g" in scanreg and the slash.

Pick a copy of the registry that goes back before your problem. Wait for it to scan and replace, then take the floppy out and let it restart normally.

I thought about doing that, and I'm willing to try..but I just don't have that startup disk. Is there anything I can do about it?

You shouldn't need one.
Keep tapping on the F8 key during boot.
Choose "Command Prompt" from the list.
Any third party software that was installed "after" the date you choose may need to be re-installed as the registry entries from the restore will not be there.

Anyone running Windows 98, 98/SE or ME should have a startup (floppy) disk.
You can easily make one from Windows.

Just format a floppy disk and tell windows to make it bootable.
Then add to it the programs you need like scanreg.exe.

I already have one you can download if you like. Easier than trying to re-invent the wheel.

It's actually my custom Windows ME boot disk, but that's OK. The only difference is that ME will FDISK and Format a much larger hard drive than 98/SE will. This disk will allow you to run Scanreg /restore right from a menu selection. Nothing for you to type. OK?

Just go to My Download site and download "wnMEboot.exe" and save it to your desktop. Put a blank floppy disk in your A: drive and then run the file you've just downloaded.
The program will run and build for you a copy of my own Custom Windows ME boot disk.

I've tried to make this process as simple as possible to keep me from having to mail disks all over the world. Please give it a try and let me know if you have any problems.

Then boot up your system with your newly created boot disk, run item #6 from the menu and follow the on-screen instructions to pick the day you want to back up to.

There are also three other options there you may want to use before you exit that disk.
Run scandisk, (item #4).
Then run item #7 to remove Wmiexe.exe....a totally redundant program that runs automaticly on your PC and does NOthing for you.
Then run item #8 to clean out all the temp files, etc on your Hard drive.

When the operation is completed, remove the boot disk and restart your system. Things shoudl be working better for you.

OH, by the way, battery backup systems sell for as little as $39 usd. You should definitely get one.

I live here in FL., the lightning capital of the western hemisphere and UPS's are not even an Option here.
They are Mandatory.

I lost an internal modem last week to a lightning strike that got through two levels of professional surge protection. But, my computer kept right on humming, running on my APC 500w UPS.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to run so long.

Have a nice day now, Y'hear?

The Shadow

And, alternately, you can go into the Control Panel, click the Startup Disk tab, insert a blank floppy into your floppy drive (anything on it will be destroyed!), and click "Create Disk." Hesto Presto, a Windows 98 Startup Disk. Test it by leaving it in the drive and restarting your computer. If it starts from the disk, you'll see the A:\> prompt. You're running in DOS. Type C: and you'll see the C:\> prompt. Type cd windows and you'll see C:\windows>

Type win - hit enter - Windows starts. Remove the floppy and keep it in a safe place.

I REALLY appreciate all your help, but nothing seems to have worked.

I've tried what everyone suggested with no luck. For creating the startup disk as Herk last mentioned and trying the wnMEboot.exe, they both had problems copying to the disks and didn't work properly when trying to start up with them.

Just tapping F8 from booting up seemed to work, however the restore itself didn't, and I tried a few times. And those registry backups were from last month..

Heh..is there any else that can be done?