My computer is in an endless loop...

For the past two weeks upon starting up my computer I would get a message saying that there was a problem with my registry and that Windows would run registryfix and attempt to correct the problem. Sometimes the computer would go into Safe mode and I would reboot and the problem would be temporarily fixed, more and more frequently I would have crashes and have to reboot yet again. I ran Adaware and Spybot as well as Norton Utilities. After eliminating a few anomalies and defragging the system seemed to be working fine, until now. Once the computer has been started up and reaches the desktop screen I first receive the following error, "The C:\Windows\system\msvcrt.dll file appears to be corrupt. Reinstall the file, and then try again." This appears with the option to click OK. Almost immediately after the aforementioned message appears another message or error appears in a white box containing the following error message, "Error loading Explorer.exe. You must reinstall Windows". Clicking any of the boxes gets no where as the computer has by now crashed. I do not have a Windows 98 emergency boot disk or a Windows 98 CD as the IBM clone system on my computer did not include a Windows 98 disk upon purchase. I believe that I need to edit the system.ini but I don't know how to do this without guidance, of course I'm just guessing. If anyone could please help me I would be extremely grateful as I am at a loss as to what I should do. Thank you, Anthony

Restart your computer to Command Prompt Only.

Press the F8 key until the startup menu appears.

Choose the Command Prompt Only option then press Enter.

At the prompt C:\ type in scanreg /restore. Note the space. scanreg(space) /restore.

It will prompt you for your choice of registry to restore. Pick a date of a registry that used to work properly. Then you'll be prompted to reboot. It's very simple.

Hi, thanks for responding. I have followed the simple instructions as per your post and run the scanreg /restore command on the earliest date the command presented to me. However the earliest date given was too recent and was already corrupted. My first as well as all subsequent attempts resulted in the following message: SYSTEM RESTORE OPERATION FAILED. I'm still in trouble…

Look here:
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/start-142.html

You can download a Boot Disk here:
http://www.bootdisk.com/

Hope this helps.