Cant’ Execute Programs Under Win 98SE

I just updated the driver for my LinkSys Ethernet Card (LNE100TX(v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter) and after booting, Windows has stopped executing programs. I can open Windows Explorer, but I can’t launch any programs.

I restored the old LinkSys driver, via the Device Manager, Update Driver command, rebooted and still the same.

Something has broken and no error messages are being issued. When I click on an icon to launch a program (like IE, Netscape, Norton AntiVirus, etc.) I get the hourglass next to my mouse pointer and then it just goes away. No errors, just nothing.

Any suggestions?