msconfig

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

It also helps to look in your StartUp folder(s). I use the parenthetical
ess, because if you do FIND-->Files or folders Named StartUp, on C:, you
may find, as I did, that you have more than one. Look first in the one
whose icon looks like the one I've attached; normal pathname is
C:\windows\startMenu\programs\startUP. Look over that for programs you
don't want, make sure that what's listed is just the shortcut, not the
app itself, and delete. Good idea to backup your registry beforehand,
just in case. Navigate to C:\Windows\Sysbackup and copy the file with the
latest date somewhere else (it won't fit on a floppy, but if you have a
large ZIP drive or Direct CD it should. Or just put it in some other
folder. Of course, if you have a whole logical drive for temp files,
downloads, and intermittent backups, that's the place.) And yes, some
apps just insist on loading. Note that you cannot, apparently, without
some third-party tools, get IE and its associated hench-programs off the
taskbar.
Perhaps I should explain why you might want to copy your most recent
registry backup elsewhere. Win98 automatically keeps a certain number of
registry backups in that folder. But sometimes problems don't show up for
a few days, by which time all your good backups may be overwritten. By
placing a copy somewhere else before doing any major system tweaking, you
ensure you can get back to the status quo ante.
Patricia