Where do i go from here

I am currently running windows 98 ; but i now am having several problems with my computer . It was running fine - but now i have been getting i explorer errors on it and the other day when i started it up -- it goes to safe mode -( It does not have any virus or firewall protection on it currently) I finally got it to return to normal mode; but it took over an hour to load windows.. I tried spybot and adaware but the performance is the same.. I tried to reinstall my printer - and it says there is something pending - also my cd drives have suddenly dissapeared - Im not sure where to start -- so any information would be very helpfull --- thankyou for your time

 

Welcome to WindowsBBS

Back a few months ago one of the popular computer labs (don't remember which) purchased two new Dell/WindowsXP computers and connected them to the 'net ... with absolutely no protection whatsoever. Within something like 11 minutes both were so infected with malware that they quit running (hung) and could not even be rebooted into Windows. (In other words, ruined). The only solution was to start over by reinstalling the Operating System.

Moral of the story: An unprotected computer on today's internet is begging to be infected.

 

It sounds like Windows is quite sick.

Explorer is a major part of Windows, it manages the file system.

Boot into Safe Mode and run Scandisk set to "Thorough" and "Automatically fix errors ".

No luck, do an over-the-top reinstall of Windows. Boot to a startup disk and run Setup to reinstall to C:\Windows (there should be no loss of settings or data...backup anyway).

Matt