Windows System File Problems

A related, but even worse version of the problem can occur if an application overwrites some of the shared system files used by Windows 95—although that often means the operating system won’t load. (The same types of problems can also happen with Windows 98 or Windows ME, although Win98's System File Checker utility can help take care of these problems much more easily.) If that’s the case—it is relatively rare—you’ll probably need to reinstall Windows itself. (And if you do, you'll probably need to have a boot disk complete with a CD-ROM driver. Here's an article that tells you how to create one.)

If you do think it's time to reinstall Windows, you might try the Windows Setup program's Verify option first—it should save you time and maybe even a few extra headaches. The Verify option is supposed to be available any time you run Windows 95, 98 or Windows ME Setup on a machine that already has the same version of the operating system installed (although I've found that it doesn't always show up for some reason).

What happens is, the Setup program detects that Windows is already installed and then asks if you'd like to Verify your installation. If you do choose to Verify, it goes through an installation log file called Setuplog.txt (you can find it in your main hard drive's root directory--e.g., C:\--if you want to look at it) to see what should be installed, confirms that all the required files exist and aren't damaged, and then silently reinstalls any components that it finds are missing or damaged. In some cases, this will solve Windows system problems.

Diving In

If your willing to get your digital fingernails a bit dirty and you know the specific name of a .DLL or other Windows system file that's causing a problem (perhaps because an error message keeps telling you the problem file's name), there's another option. You can try to individually reinstall particular files. The process is not trivial, however, because all the Windows system files are stored in compressed Cabinet (.cab) files either on your hard disk, the Windows 95/98/ME CD-ROM, or both. What you have to do is find the compressed file within a particular .cab file, decompress it, and then copy it to appropriate directory inside the Windows folder.

Microsoft includes a DOS-based .cab file decompressor called Extract.exe on the Windows 95 CD and installs it in your Windows folder as part of the default installation. However, as you'll be able to quickly see from this article in Microsoft's Knowledge Base on how to use the Extract program, the program is not easy to use. Nevertheless, it can help you find the files you need. Another more straightforward option is to get the CabView utility from Microsoft (it's party of their handy PowerToys utility pack), and use it to specifically find and then decompress the component you need. Another improvement in Windows 98 and Windows ME is you can view the contents of CAB files and extract individual elements just by using Windows Explorer.

Most shared .DLL problems can be avoided if the programmers have done their homework, but given all the possible combinations of programs and .DLLs that are out there, it’s almost impossible for them to avoid all problems. And unfortunately, as frustrating as it may be, the only real answer to these problems is to reinstall the software. In fact, I’ve even heard or read some people recommend that you reinstall Windows and your apps every 3-6 months or so to avoid problems. I think this is overkill, but the thought has passed through my mind on more than one occasion as I’ve struggled through trying to resolve software problems on my own or other people’s machines.

Another possible solution is to not remove any shared .DLL files when you uninstall an application, but while that may work in a few instances, it eventually leads to a Windows folder full of unnecessary, potentially problematic stuff, so it’s not a great long-term solution. Frankly, there’s no great long-term solution other than to slug your way through, keeping your software as up-to-date as you can (and even that doesn’t always work—sometimes it’s better just to find a combination of software that works and stick with it).