Windows 98se w/o firewall

1. Please let me point out that the article "Understanding and Troubleshooting Unrecoverable Errors (Faults) in Internet Explorer (Q276393)" explains that IE runs in what is known as a user-mode (or Ring3) process that means it runs in its own virtual address spaces and does not have direct access to hardware or memory that is not allocated to it by Windows. Please note however, most programs interact with user-mode processes such as ActiveX Controls, Browser Helper Objects, tool bands, and other components that can add custom functionality, such as additional toolbars, wallpaper or banner ads and etc., and anything else added and unnecessarily used for/with IE is going to slow its process.

CAVEAT: However, I do not recommend the use of the Microsoft Internet Explorer Error Reporting tool to send a report to MS since you're not going to get an answer -- if used at all, use it for its information only.

2. Used Win98 from the day MS issued it until this past week without any active antivirus or spyware programs and never had a problem. However, I did only open e-mail for things which I knew. Run the stand-a-lone of Adaware and Spybot every now and then to see what they come up with.

You said ?She has AOL 9.0 dial up with anti virus & anti spyware included but no firewall?. This software provided by the ISP, has it been updated lately? I ask because I too support a person who owns a computer with about the same specs but even less RAM and when we updated to a new version of anti-virus from the ISP, it was so bloated (resource hog) that it made the computer un-usably slow. We removed the ISP provided anti-virus and installed Avast Free home version anti-virus. The computer was still slow but not un-usably slow. If you believe the computer to be clean then this maybe the problem.

As to the firewall I have been told that if you are using Win98 and not using file and printer sharing then a firewall is unneeded. I have just turned off my file and printer sharing and may remove the Zone Alarm version 4.5 from my Win98 computer (that?s the only version I could get to work in Win9. I may leave it as a monitoring tool. I like it when it informs me a program wants access to the Internet. Still it is using up resources and slowing the speed. It?s a hard call to make.