Explorer problem

[johnnymk]

On my other computer,every time I attempt to run Outlook Express,which is my Email program,it says the stuff about illegal operation, etc. Details mentions that another instance of this may be running and something about a stack dump. I used a diagnostic program and discovered that approx. 50 MB of the 128 MB was being used.
I used CTR ALT DEL to shut down anything that was running and tried Outlook Express after each instance. Same thing after every deletion.
So I deleted every program, including Morpheus, Virus protection, etc, and tried again.. Same thing.
I used System Mechanix,another diagnostic program to analyze the registry. It scanned everything and it asked if I wanted to delete the duplicate DLLs, etc, So I did.
I didn't backup the registry :(
I rebooted it. The Windows 98 logo appears, but after a lot of activity within the hard drive, a screen comes up again about the illegal operation. Details:Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.EXE@..........Also another mention about a stack dump. It won't go any further. Any ideas?

[IrishSS]

Without getting too nitty gritty, I'd say your best bet is to reformat and reinstall Windows. Sounds like there is more than one problem, and its usually easier in the long run to just reinstall.

[johnnymk]

If I reinstall Windows 98, will I lose all of my valuable programs? Will I have to reinstall them, too? I hope not

[IrishSS]

If all you do is reinstall Win98, you wont lose anything. Settings and short cuts mostly... but no actual data. If you reformat, you will lose everything, but its generally preferred because it purges your drive of all bad things...

[johnnymk]

I don't have the CD for Win98 at home. They have one at work. But I do have Win98SE, which I never got arond installing. If I install this CD, will everything still be saved? Thanks for the help.

[Jeffbx]

Yes, just pop in the Win98SE disk & let it do an *upgrade* of your system (you should be able to boot off of the CD).

It'll keep all your settings & hopefully stabilize things a bit. To correct the Outlook Express problem, upgrade Internet Explorer to the latest version - OE is part of IE. The 98SE upgrade should fix this anyway.

[johnnymk]

Thanks everyone, I will try it tonight.