I read your post and an issue that Microsoft (MS) never resolved was the reliability of what happens when Windows 98 runs out of resources or an application fails. A reboot may land the user in Safe Mode and again, MS considered the users of those days to take the steps to reboot again.
You didn't tell if you did another restart after entering Safe Mode.
Just FYI, there is no patch or repair for this behaviour and there is no plan to create such.
Bob
I was using aol, when all of a sudden I received a message that aol had to restart. It would not restart, and suggested I close the program and restart my computer. I did that than on startup I get a message:
Windows protection error; you must restart your computer.
I did that and restarted in safe mode, but don't know where to look to solve this problem. Tried windows help, but it didn't seem to have a topic for anything I punched in. Thanks for any insight on how to fix.

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