Boo,

Remember the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." They got ya!

Several of the windows updates have caused more greif than anyone can imagine, and some were not even from windows. Windows 98SE is actually a good program and really doesn't need any patches to run quite efficiently.

The pop-ups can be eliminated in most instances by first going into windows and deleting all cookies in the cookies folder. There is usually an index cookie that will not allow itself to be deleted--don't worry about that one.

Next, go into the Windows history folder and delete all history. There are always lots of little gizmos in the history that allows the pop-up folks to target you.

Next, go into the Windows Temporary Internet Files and delete those as well. They take up lots of space, creat little things that the spyware folks love to target.

Now go into Internet Explorer and select Tools, Internet Options, then select the General Tab, click Clear History and Delete Temporary Internet Files.

Now go to the Recycle Bin and empty the recycle bin. This should nearly eliminate the popups, at least for a while.

There's a distince possibility that you may have corrupt files in Windows, probably originating from the update patches applied. Therefore, the next step is to again do a scan disk, then disk defragmentation.

If the errors go away, you've solved the problem. If they persist, you may have to start from scratch. This is a lousy job, but you wouldn't be the first person that had to back up his files on a CD or floppies, format the hard drive and reinstall windows, the drivers and all software. This can take a couple days if you know what you're doing. If you don't know, have one of the local computer shops do the job for you. They're pretty quick, they usually charge $50 to $75 in this part of the country and usually have the computer back to you the next day. They'll install windows, the internal hardware and associated drivers, but nothing more. Then you have to reinstall all your additional hardware, printers, etc, and all software. Then you'll essentially have a brand new computer with uncorrupted files.

Good Luck,

Gary