Don,
I don't think what I'm seeing is completely normal.

What I'm saying is that one minute I have "open with" when I right click on a
picture and a few minutes later I don't, when I click on the same picture.

The "File Types" tab is the same issue - one minute it's there and the next it is
not.  I know it IS contained in Win98SE, because I've used it numerous times.  This
is a fluctuating problem.

It's a desk top computer - NEC, purchased 1/99.

I doubt it's power surges, because it's been this way in the apartment where I live
now, as well as the house I used to lived in 15 miles away.  (And no one else I
know, in the area, is complaining about the same problem.)  I am actually now living
in a good place for power.  It's a building that is only 3 years old and the wiring
is underground.  We haven't had a power outage in the 3 years I've lived here.

Thanks for the info. on ERD.  I'll try doing that.

I have a CD from NEC for reformatting and there seems to be only one option.  It
looks like a couple of options, but they do exactly the same thing.  I've used both
options, and both destroy all my data.  So, if there is a way to overlay Win98SE,
it's not via the CD.  (I actually have two CDs.  I purchased a second from NEC when
I was having trouble near the beginning of ownership, and thought possibly there was
a problem on the CD.  One of them contains Win98 and the other is Win98SE.  I'm now
not sure which was the one on the computer when I purchased it, but I believe it was
Win98SE.)  Is there another way to overlay, without the CD?

Thanks,
Carol Hanson


The best solution if to have regular registry backups, from which you can
always restore the registry quickly and easily whenever things get out of
kilter. Use ERD, free from Microsoft---see my tutorial on registry
backups.  It's very simple to use.

It's 10-second job instead of a 1-day (if you're lucky) reformat job.  With
regular use of ERD, I never once had to reformat in 6 years of W95 use.

For readers using Win NT/XP, use ERDNT.

When things are working well, that's the time to make a registry
backup.  If your MGI is now working as you want, now's the time to do a
registry backup. Restoring the registry in future will restore yourOpenWith
settings.  No need for a reformat, unless your computer has gotten so far
out of kilter that there's now no alternative.  You could always try a
reinstall of W98 "over the top". That's much less hassle than reformatting,
and may be enough to fix a badly-corrupted registry, though it does tend to
preserve the previous registry settings wherever possible.

Don Penlington

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