Turns out that the cause of my problem was a worm virus.  Here is a link to
Symantec's site, where it is discussed in detail:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hllw.bymer.html

This worm deploys a client, 'dnetc.exe', which originates from
www.distributed.net.  They have a utility at their site called "Wormfree",
with which I was able to successfully remove the problem files and get the
system operational again.  Look here for details on it:

http://www.distributed.net/trojans.html.en

Thanks very much to all who wrote with comments and suggestions relating to
my problem.

George



> > I'm trying to deal with a Win95a box right now that boots to a Windows
> > desktop (no icons), then takes about 10 minutes before displaying 2
> > messages.  They are:  "A required .dll file, WS2_32.dll, was not found"
> and
> > "Could not load or run 'wininit.exe' specified in the win.ini file.
Make
> > sure the file exists on your computer or remove the reference to it in
the
> > win.ini file."  After this, icons appear, but system runs so slow as to
be
> > unusable.  Runs fine in safe mode.  I do not have a 95a disk to try
> > installing over the O/S with; the only 95 disk I have says "With USB
> > support" (95b?).  I have found the 'winint.exe' file in the C:\windows
> > directory, as well as 'wininit.bak'.  My next step will be to reformat,
> > unless anyone has some suggestions.

               The NOSPIN Group Promotions is now offering
              Mandrake Linux or Red Hat Linux CD sets along
         with our NOSPIN Power Linux CD...  at a great price!!!
             http://freepctech.com/goodies/promotions.shtml