Misc. queries:

I've a "few" questions to pose, and as always, I'd be
appreciative of your comments/advice.

a) Under WIN98SE on our PC, the Start>Programs> menu
now looks like a televised NYC marathon; if I delete or
(move?) any of those items from the Programs menu, is
the app erased from the drive, or just from the menu?
OR, does it depend on if I may have another/icon/pointer
to said app elsewhere, like on the Desktop? (A basic
question, I know, but I'd like to know the answer to it
for certain lest I do anything rash).

b) After PC repairs/upgrades & what not, things are
better but still not right:

* This may have to do with older BIOS (and I think Close
Hauled mentioned that in reply to my earlier post about
ScanDisk and Controller troubles), but there still seems
to be a single/double fifo thing wherein I have a drive
"vanish" at every other reboot. The CD burner (E) then
becomes D, whereas D's normally the 2nd HD, where Gollum
stores his precious junk and backs C: up to.

*The repair guy, in some attempt to get around to the
single/double fifo ailment, tried but could not install
clean "refresh" over my WIN98SE - on either drive - and
so I wound up with a dufus WINDOWS000 DIR on the drive,
below old WINDOWS. (D: drive is just for storage, and
I run/store some apps there; not implying that I had an
OS on that drive, too).

He could install clean WIN98SE to a blank drive, but
something on my drive did not allow him to reinstall on
my WIN98SE existing version. A security app on my PC,
perhaps, that by its mere presence did not let him go
that route?

I asked, for good or ill, that he try (I think it's a
/d switch type WIN) reinstall over WIN, which I'd done
before - that kind of refreshes things, but pretty well
leaves settings intact: I wanted that, as opposed to a
C: wipe and reinstall, in case my backups were faulty
or in case I'd gotten too selective when doing the last
backup. And you ONLY discover those things... when you
really need it the most).

And as you may guess I've been diddling with getting
apps to find their way home again to WIN000, rather
than old WIN dir. Got it, mostly, with important tools
and security apps for net surfing going again; but there
are still things like Outlook Express that thinks it is
a new install and can't find mailboxes or .pst files, I
think it is, that it needs to find stuff that I mailed
before repairs. (And NetDemon thinks it's a trial ver.,
tho' I'd bought it long ago - just a matter of finding
a text file or e-mail wherein I have serial # for that
and perhaps a few other things, I believe).

So, I'll spend some time this weekend, rounding up .txt
files/e-mails and the like, not to mention rethinking a
more coherent backup plan like perhaps buying Acronis
True Image or using both a HD and the cd burner for
saving copies of what I call important stuff).

But, info's still on drive, at some obscure location;
I for some reason back when had OE and Calypso and Poco
store their files in Download dir so as to have Spybot
(and maybe another app) check them there rather than
their normal respective DIR positions. (At the time,
all of that made sense, believe it or not).

*And, haven't tried this lately, but having gone to 512
MB RAM, it happened a few times that when running 2-3
little things I'd then get out of memory errors when
trying to open another item. It sometimes happens with
usual stuff running before going on 'net. (Now and then
an icon changes). Reboot, then PC seems to know which
end is up. WTF?

Ummm...? I'd read on some forum that WIN98SE has troubles
with more than 256 MB RAM - is that correct? (Was also
told that most WIN versions can only really see or use x
amount of RAM, tho' there's workarounds in some or most
cases). True?

*And the startup time on the PC this time around is
quite pokey so I wondered: there's a spot in Setup
about a splash screen setting that may enter into the
startup time but... a splash screen setting to what, I
wonder?

*Then today, I find a number missing from DUN setup, so
dialer didn't work without that, of course. That was
about as annoying as changing a setting in IE, and then
find it's gotten stupid and unchecked a choice(?!)

*** But, the big question is this: is there some point
wherein it may be safe to delete old WIN dir - and save
that drive space - and hopefully not foul up everything?

At this point, things work well enough even tho' you
(and I) could question/debate my housekeeping on the
two drives and so on, and I agree with that... but I
thought if this puppy is working again, I don't want to
poke it in the eye and end up using the 2nd old PC again
to check mail and so on).

*And I get dialog box coming up "warning" that ZA fire
wall's trying to initialize TrueVector internet monitor
and do I wish to cancel that? Well, no I don't; I want
ZA to run before going on the web - but am I missing a
file in the right place, somewhere, that makes me see
that query every startup?

====================================================
*And, while not the place to post this, HT log says,
four different times:

O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP:
c:\windows.000\system\drwebsp.dll

And I'm having trouble with normal update of DRWEB AV
so I have to get zip files and extract them which works
and one of the guys at DRWEB has been looking at my log
files on this matter - but I've also read that poorly
written apps can trash a .dll file, among other things.
But, I also normally don't outright dis-believe anything
mentioned in an HJT log; so, any opinions on this
problem?

And, too, Spybot says:

--- Winsock Layered Service Provider list ---
Protocol 0: DrwebSP.MS.w95.spi.tcp
GUID: {7706E029-9A28-43A9-846D-1CE70CD3FEE5}
Filename: C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\DRWEBSP.DLL

Protocol 1: DrwebSP.MS.w95.spi.udp
GUID: {6E794481-9C07-4972-8FD3-A267C9D79982}
Filename: C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\DRWEBSP.DLL

Protocol 2: DrwebSP.MS.w95.spi.rsvptcp
GUID: {B039694D-0E77-4EBC-9327-B237A57BDC31}
Filename: C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\DRWEBSP.DLL

Protocol 3: DrwebSP.MS.w95.spi.rsvpudp
GUID: {BE9E92F6-C8EB-403C-9BC7-E8BCA2123482}
Filename: C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM\DRWEBSP.DLL

So... what's the winsock ailment, here - ideas?
===============================================
*** Come to think of it: if your eyes glaze over while
reading this... perhaps someone here may've seen a site
or link to site wherein complete fresh WIN98SE reinstall
is done, and the site (I recall) tells you what you need
on hand, before starting.*** I may be forced into that
after all(?)

Again, as always, many thanks for help/advice,
Best, SG1 (Pat)

 

SG1,

Wow - that's some list!
Anyways...you can safely delete any item on the start menu programs list and not lose your apps from your hardrive. A better way to remove them from the list would be to use msconfig and edit the list...someone will be along shortly to help with that.

another way to go about your problem is to do them in steps rather than all at once unless you do indeed wish to scrub and re-install and if that's the case you may want to start a new thread on what you need and how to backup what you wish to keep. Good luck.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, reinstalling Windows98 in a Win000 directory will sooner or later result in errors & problems because several applications developed in the Win98 era had "Windows" as the default directory instead of the variable "%rootsystem%". Unfortunately, renaming this directory does not work.

Win98 is notorious for accumulating old and useless registry items over time.

 

If all you want is to remove entries from the start menu just go to:


Taskbar.....properties....start menu........


That will remove ENTRIES.........if you want to prevent a PROGRAM from starting when Windows start then follow RAVIN's advice.....could not understand just what you are asking.



Get rid of your computer repair guy!! Of course you can do a clean install on a corrupted harddrive......



(Win98 is notorious for accumulating old and useless registry items over time)

all systems do this..its not just specific to win98se.......thats why many people use registry cleaners......

Reformat the computer correctly an get rid of those problem.

 

Took a moment to read most of your first post. An thats about all the time it took to see that that someone who has very little understanding of the working of a computer has screwed that computer up. Sometimes a doze of honesty is the better way to go.
Many of your questions have absolutely nothing to do with a decent running computer. The zone alarm question you asked could be answered in 10 seconds in the firewall forum.....other questions answers could be provided for......but the best advice....it to just suggest that you slow down and take time to learn what needs learning.
This will be my last post. Good Luck