Windows

To me, although you have programs to spot malicious progs, it sounds like you do have some sort of virus or something on your computer. But with that said these registry tweaks may help you troublehshoot. (taken from the same site of Registry mechanic publishers)
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/950/
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/769/

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/964/
These tweaks explain how to seperate explorer processes and may relieve you from everything opening at once.

I will look at the sites listed. Many thanks. Is there a foolproof way of establishing the existence of a virus or similar? I have AVG and it has not found anything at all. I used to run Norton AV but that found nothing either.

Unfortunately there is no foolproof method for finding viruses and/or malware. Different malicious apps behave differently.

Post back with a few more specs regarding your system (ie cpu, memory etc). Also, what type of connection do you have (dial-up, broadband etc) and what programs are you trying to start that are hanging?

Cheers.

RW

I'd definetly suggest you try running Ad Aware from Lavasoft as well as Spybot S&amp.

Thanks for the replies. In desperation I went back to the software supplier and he generously agreed to refund and supply me with the full XP Home pack. I went right back to the begining and formatted the HD and installed the new software. So far everything is running ok. I have installed AVG Free, Spybot, Adware and a few other things that detect nasty items. I'm getting so paranoid about bugs and things that I was almost tempted to spray the whole thing with Dettox as that kills everything, well almost, including Rotavirus et al.

Any suggestions on further protection although it may have been my poor installation that caused the problems in the first place. For example I installed Office 97 on the first installation and that was an upgrade which needed Works or similar but after a few attempts it went in, this probably should not have happened. On installing the full XP Home I put Works in first and then Office and it installed straight away. Maybe it was this.

You probably answered your own question, It is Best practice to only install windows (of any version) as a freshinstall, not upgrading as it almost always conflicts, as for security of the system you have pretty much done all mthat is necesssary, how ever I dont understand why you installed works then office when they do the same task , Office probably being the better of the two ( my personal opinion)

First of all...you should have done a clean install that way no remnants of W98 would be left over. Secondly, you should have gotten XP Pro.

Thirdly, check your memory chip(s). Windows 2000/XP manage memory very differently than W98, so the hang may be a result of memory management or a bad chip.