Restore files to eliminate messages



Q. You're my last hope. I have a Dell Windows 98 machine and run SBC Yahoo DSL.
As soon as I connect to the Internet, I start getting an error message, "Iexplore -- This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." If I click on the details button it further states "IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module unknown ..."
This message will pop up every few minutes. Additionally, if I do a Ctrl + Alt + Delete, the program box will show that this program is listed multiple times (up to 10 times). It slows the machine down terribly, and eventually I reboot.
I've been on the phone with Microsoft three times and SBC once. I've reloaded Internet Explorer 6.0 and have run SpyBot and Ad-aware software. Nothing seems to work.
A. You surely talked to the wrong person at Microsoft.
Microsoft's Knowledge Base of fixes for various "issues" deals directly with this problem that afflicts only Windows 98 and 95. It stems from a virus called Matrix that does its nasty stuff by corrupting the Windows Sockets, or Winsock, which is the essential file that Windows uses to link with the Web.
The fix is to restore that Winsock file (wsock32.dll) to its pristine state using the Windows System File Checker and then extracting an unsullied copy from your Windows 98 CD-ROM.
Put the CD in the drive tray, click Start and Run, type in sfc and tap Enter. Pick the Extract file choice that appears, then point the Browse box that appears to the CD drive and press Enter.
If you are asked to create a new folder for the operation, say Yes, and the operating system will restore your Winsock and stop those nasty floods of Internet Explorer error messages.
Q. I am getting an error that says I have a problem with WMPDXM.DLL, whatever that is. I receive this whenever I try to open the My Documents and My Computer folders and when I run several other programs. If I right-click and open through Explore, they will open. Can you help me?
A. Your problem lies with one of the support files for the Windows Media Player built into Windows XP, even though it pops up whenever you try to run many other commands.
In essence, there is a small component of Windows called a dynamic link library that is trying to access other parts of Windows, but these other components are not registered as part of the operating system. The fix is to run several registration commands from the Run command line under the Start menu.
So click on Start and Run and then type in regsvr32 msdxm.ocx and click OK. Now type in regsvr32 dxmasf.dll and click OK. Next, click on Start and Run again and type regsvr32 wmp.dll in the box. Hit OK and type in regsvr32 wmpdxm.dll and OK.
Q. I was running Adobe Reader 6.0 when an announcement popped up saying that there was an upgraded version, 6.0.1, available on the Adobe Systems Inc. site. I downloaded and installed the upgrade.
Since then, the reader works fine if I open it as a stand-alone application or if I double-click on a PDF file on my system. However, if I'm in Internet Explorer and click on a link to a PDF file, I get an error message stating that Acrobat Reader cannot be found. To add complexity, if Adobe Reader is already open when I click on the link, the document opens. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but the same thing happens.
A. During that Adobe Reader upgrade, something probably caused your browser settings to switch off the permission for your browser to run plug-ins from third parties. That is why documents with the Adobe PDF extension will open when you click on them outside the browser.
So open Internet Explorer, click on Tools and Internet Options and then select the Advanced tab. There you will find a series of check boxes for numerous options, and there almost certainly will be no check mark in the one to permit third-party plug-ins.
In the event that something got jumbled in the browser software's innards to cause this shunning of Adobe, you can restore Internet Explorer to its original state when your computer came out of the box. You then can follow the prompts to go to the Microsoft Web site to do the upgrades you have installed over time.
The drill here is the same as you used to uninstall Adobe Reader. Click on Start and Control Panel, select the Microsoft Internet Explorer and then click on Remove. Instead of totally removing this software, Windows XP will restore the browser to its original state.
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