My computer is apparently possesed. Or it has developed a mind of its own. I am using Win98, and lately, weird stuff has been happening to my desktop. Specifically to an Excel worksheet, and my Outlook Express and I.E.
Yesterday, I turned my computer on, and I had a shoutcut to Outlook that wasn’t there before. This is my default email program, but I’ve always kept it on the taskbar, not the desktop. So I deleted the shortcut. Also, my excel sheet was in a totally different location. It was near the top of the screen when I turned the computer off, and when I turned it on, it was at the bottom.
And then today, I have I.E. on the desktop (which has been on the taskbar for the past 7 months), and my excel sheet is moved again to yet another position. And this time it’s not a shortcut to I.E., but its the actual program.
Now what is going on here? Why is my computer moving things and adding things to my desktop? I havent changed any of my settings in ages. Why is this happening?
Long: As far as the strage movings, it could be that you have inadvertantly moved things on your desktop without knowing (like maybe moving the Taskbar to another position, which can alter where everything on the desktop is).
Also, Windows is very odd when it comes to Outlook and IE. I’ve had it add the icons on me before too. If you haven’t already, you may want to download PowerToys for Windows 98 and install TweakUI. Look under the Desktop tab and there will be a place to remove IE, which has always worked (permanently) for me.
As mnemosyne has said, Windows is indeed strange – as when Internet Explorer continually crashes the system and the Microsoft OS advises you “to contact the manufacturer regarding the problem.”
I find that periodically reloading the OS is needed. A bout of crashes late in 2000 caused me to reload Windows from scratch in December. It was a simple reload – without reformatting the hard disk – but it eliminated many of the blue screens.
Here are the “gotchas” with this method:
– make sure that you backup MyDocument, MyPictures, MyWebs or other document folders. If you don’t have a writeable CD-ROM, it’s the first choice in PC options these days.
– you may have to reload certain applications. I had to reload about six of them: the data was there but Registry settings or DLL libraries were disturbed and a reload was necessary.
– make a backup of Outlook or Outlook Express address book and messages. Microsoft has excellent documentation on how to do it online. You might start here: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q257/8/36.ASP
(I lost my e-mail messages and folders during the last reload, but not the address book.)
I’ve checked the system and for viruses, and everything was fine. I haven’t moved the taskbar or anything lately - the excel file in particular was the last thing I put on my desktop before shutting down. Actually, it moved again today. I had it in the second “column” of the desktop, I opened Windows Explorer, closed it a minute later, and the shortcut had moved to the first column like it did this morning. I guess its just happier there. I haven’t had enough problems to bother with reinstalling yet, but if it gets worse, I will. My boyfriend should have Linux running on this computer soon, so perhaps I’ll just become a Gnome user - though I have no clue how to fix anything in that!
Thanks for all the advice and info. And for the simple reminder that Windows is just strange - as my friend said, its all “because Windows doesn’t like you”. Maybe its jealous about the whole Linux thing…
The spontainously moving items on the desktop sounds like auto arrange is enabled…
as far as loading windows on top of itself, be careful. I’ve seen it hork just as many systems as it fixes. Backup your data before you give it a shot just incase. Often times if the reload does not solve the issues it will cause even more, requiring a full format to solve the issue.
Also, if you are experiencing errors with one particular file (kernel32.dll is a popular one) you can try reextracting the file. Almost all windows files live in the win98 directory on the windows CD, and you extract them to c:\windows\system
