Working on a friend's computer with Win 98. The shutdown supplement stopped working and then something really strange happened.... on reboot several icons were missing for the most recently installed programs... a new printer/scanner and software that came with it. It's like it did a system restore!! The printer and sotware wasn't even listed in the Programs list. Why and how did it revert back to an earlier line-up??? This is the second time it happened. The first time I did some clean up of the registry and temp files and when I rebooted the printer and software magically reappeared. Then it happened again. Any ideas?

Sometimes, when Windows detects a serious registry problem, it restores a previous copy of the registry. (It keeps five copies in reserve.) You'll need to re-install those programs again.

You might try finding the exe file for the missing programs using Windows Explorer and click on them to open the programs.

If that works, you can then make a shortcut for it and place it on the desktop.