Computer question not found in sticky

General Questions
#1

In the past, I’ve been able to download and save movie and game files, such as .wmv or .swf. I noticed the problem when I couldn’t view an email attachment. Figuring it was a corrupt file, I went to the URL and still couldn’t open it. Checked some other favorite sites of previous downloads, and no response from .swf files-unless I already have that file saved. New files are unresponsive, and I can’t right click to Save target as for other file types.

Win98SE latest service pack/patch/upgrade installed.
Windows media player says it’s fully up to date.
Downloaded and installed Shockwave player 10 from Macromedia.
NAV, NIS, NAS all current.

The only other item noteworthy is I have a game file downloaded which is under a 30 day evaluation. I might buy it, but not if it’s goofing up the otherwise happy box. Perhaps coincidence, but that’s one of the only things I can think of right around that time frame. A week or so previous I had done scandisk, defrag, spybot purge and virus scan.

HALP!

#2

For extension issues, the fist thing I look for is extension hijack, which means (for me, anyway) a spybot check. make sure that you have current copies and sigs for ad-aware and spybot search&destroy.

If that doesn’t fix it, than a quick reinstall of the app that is supposed to take care of those extensions will definately reset the registry associations.

#3

I ran both of those malware utilities, and also reinstalled Shockwave player.

Any other ideas are most welcome.