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Originally posted by Bing: Paul's advice to reinstall the game is to the point and sometimes the only thing that can be done. I would add another step: Clean out the registry. After a lot of problems with crashes, lockups and assorted problems - lately not with SPW@W hoever - I find these principal causes: 1) Get into the startup page from msconfig.exe. Take out EVERYTHING except Explorer, you dopn't even need systray.exe, it does NOT run the system tray and can, as I just found out, be a major cause of trouble. These comments apply to Win 98, to a degree also to Win 95 and I think to other OS's. 2) Get RegCleaner or some other good, freeware registry utility. After you first uninstall (don't ever reinstall unless you do this first)search for every instance of the first installation. Delete every last one, via RegEdit Plus which allows you to make a backup of every single deletion (available from ZDNet downloads). What you might find are duplications of reg entries that were not taken out during uninstall. 3) Reboot at least once, preferably three times, then if you are brave go to the command line and type regscan /fix allow DOS to do its work, then type regscan /opt . You can omit these steps, but rebuilding, then optimizing the registry again might be the only way, short of a complete reinstallation of the OS. 4) Any files you DO put back in the startup routine, make sure these is only ONE of these files and it is where it ought to be. This may save you days of troubleshooting. Bing

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"I hope ZinZan knows his way around his computer more than most people."

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Originally posted by Bing: Getting excess files out of startup really isn't exotic. Just plain common sense, it solves a lot of problems. Regarding the registry, scanreg gives the user a working backup. If the user gets in trouble, that is why scanreg /restore is available. Making sure the OS is not trying to load duplicate system files is also pretty much common sense. Coincidentally, there is an article on www.pcworld.com/ about what utilities can do - check the section of the article titled "When Utilities Attack" for an idea of what can happen. Note this was a professional, also note he had to go into the registry and delete the duplicate keys and entries Norton had created, otherwise the application would never have worked. Sometimes bold measures are the only ones that work. Staying away from the registry is something MS wants you to do. If the user doesn't want to learn the basics of an operating system then he will have to settle for whatever he gets. I've used /restore and it works fine, it is like anything else to do with OS, same as the days of DOS command line. Can you hurt your computer with any of this? Unlikely. The alternative may very well be deleting everything, every last file form the HD, reformatting and reinstalling the OS and every last piece of software. You pays your money, you gets your choice, I know what mine is. RegCleaner is as safe as an editor can be made. Bing

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Originally posted by Bing: I've heard legacy apps don't do so well in Win2K, plus it took me three years to feel confident I knew at least a little something about Win 98. So I stayed with Win 98 (SE now) when I ordered my new computer. EVery OS will give a user problems, every one I have been around at any rate. IJ'll be darned if I'll throw out all those books and utilities I collected for Win 98. I suppose for business purposes Win2K might be the way to go, I don't really know. Bing

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Originally posted by Bing: To each his own. I am not about to live with an OS that doesn't allow me access to the DOS command line. There are simply too many functions that require this. Plus I don't know what W2K or ME could do for me tht Win 98 cannot. I heard W2K would not handle a number of "legacy" apps, one reason I avoided it. Win 98 does whatever I need to do, so I stick with it. Bing