Hello Everybody

I can't seem to boot successfully into Win98. Error message displays Shell32.dll missing (caused illegal operation - system will shutdown).

How do I restore this system to its original state without reinstalling Win98

Thank You in advance for your help!

I've downloaded a copy of shell32.dll from the url above.
I then copied it to c:\windows\system.

When I booted the pc, I no longer seen the error message but Win98 still failed to load.

I see a blanked desktop with nothing on it.

Try this, a la Microsoft:

Restart the computer by using a Windows 98 startup disk.

In the Microsoft Windows 98 startup dialog box, type 1, and then press ENTER.

Record the drive letter assigned to your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

Type Ext, and then press ENTER.

The Microsoft Extract Command Line Helper starts. At the Please enter the path to the Windows CAB files (a:): message, type drive:\win98 (where drive is the drive letter that you recorded in step 3), and then press ENTER. For example, type E:\win98, and then press ENTER.

At the Please enter the name(s) of the file(s) you want to extract: message, type Explorer.exe, and then press ENTER.
At the Please enter the path to extract to ('Enter' for current directory): message, type C:\Windows, and then press ENTER.

At the Is this okay? (y/n) message, type y, and then press ENTER.

The file is extracted to the specified directory.
Remove the Windows 98 startup disk, and then restart the computer.

I type ext from e:\win98 drive and pressed enter
Message displayed: Bad command or filename.

I tried the following:
e:\win98\extract explorer.exe c:\windows\system

I get error message: ERROR: CANNOT OPEN FILE: EXPLORER.EXE

Is e:\ your cd-rom drive?  Or your cd-rw?
(Don't follow the directions too literally...you want d:\ as your cd drive designation on both of my machines.)
Of course, e:\ may be yours, just checking....

I have two partitions C and D so E is my cd-rom drive.
I've tried the above commands after booting with the Win98 CD.

Well from what i see your not telling extract where to look. once you get to your c: promt then to your cdrom e:\win98 type "extract /?" for help on dir and switches
example
"e:\win98\extract /y /a /l c:\windows\system win98_21.cab shell32.dll"

Question?

How do I know which cab to tell extract to look in?

eg. WIN98_32.CAB???

Thany You very much!!!

You're a genius, your help has solved my problem.

I used typed the commands exactly like you gave me, and I think it restored all the cabinate file.

When I booted, Windows 98 loaded up sucessfully.

Thanks a million!!!

Hey kiv you might wanna give these guys a star for helping you solve your problem !

no problem kiv the switches i gave told the command to start at the first cab file i gave it and search them all
glad it worked