Lui,

I have no surefire cure. I do however know to suggest that all Pests and Parasites be removed and that one can review the Optimizing Windows article at http://www.aumha.org/articles.

Windows 95/98/ME is not "reliable" and can do such things either after running a while or if some Pest has set up a home on the machine. Many feel safe with just some Antivirus running, but the threats (Pests) have evolved past the virus stage and now show up in even a BITMAP on a web page that you look at with IE 5.5. Reference -> http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=1076963422

As such, Windows users continue to feel like they are on the upgrade treadmill as they move to IE 6.0 to move away from the new threats.

For me, I use Mozilla to sidestep the IE issue and use IE when I must for about 2 web sites. I also keep all Pests and Parasites off the machines. Here's a closing snipper about that.

- Parasite removal programs.

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=1313&start=0 notes the five scanning tools and removal tools that are fairly safe. If one does encounter an issue, its always been damage done by the MALWARE. The most common issue being Layered Service Provider replacement which you can use LSPFIX (Hint: use http://www.google.com to find).

The thread has follow on discussions about new links if you don't want to use Google to find an item.

Bob

PS. All the tools are free.