Windows 98se Account Problem

Ok, a bit of background reading will probably be handy for this problem. A friend of my family has done a format and clean install recently (last month or so) on her daughter's PC of windows 98SE. This format and install was done because Internet explorer was becoming unbearably slow, hanging and crashing frequently. She asked if I could help her with the problem and I suggested she run Window Washer and using another browser (FireBird to be specific). So, I got this email yesterday and now I hope you guys will be able to solve the account problem.

Thanks In Advance :)

"Your help allowed me to find out what was causing the problems. I worked out that it was Internet Explorer that was the problem. Either dialled up or opened offline, it was just taking forever, if it worked at all. It was impossible to browse the internet.

I put on MozillaFirebird and it worked fine, even a bit faster than IE does when it's working properly. I then installed Window Washer. When it ran and got to 'Temporary Items', it ran forever (it takes seconds to scan that on mine). When it had scanned 1.2GB of files, I got nervous and stopped it before it finished and deleted them, as I wanted to find out what they were first. It seemed too much.

Last time I deleted cookies and all offline content etc, and she had done that a few times since too but the Temp folder in Windows (this is Win 98SE, remember) which has its equivalent in XP's Winnit folder, had a folder in it called 'autopopup' that hadn't been deleted, although everything else in the folder had. This folder was way too big to go in the bin so had to be deleted without binning. It took 7 minutes to delete, it was so humungous. Suddenly there was 2.6GB free space on C instead of the 1.3GB it had before... and IE was working fine again. Now Window Washer took only seconds to scan for Temporary files.

Each time IE is opened, it recreates this 'autopopup' folder in the Temp folder, although 'autopopup' is empty when just renewed. It does this whether opened online or opened offline while not dialled up. IE itself seems to be creating it. Windows Washer deletes it, even though the usual methods don't, and it can also be deleted manually, so it won't get to any size of content like that again, as she'll ensure it doesn't. She prefers Firebird now anyway as it's faster and it doesn't create that 'autopopup' folder in Temp.

Unfortunately other attempts tonight to solve it have created new problems. So damned typical... two steps forward, one step back. To try to circumvent it, before I discovered the 'autopopup' folder, I created a new user account and logged off the original account then in with the new one. This made no difference to the IE problem, of course, and, being a new user account, not the original administrator one, it wouldn't allow certain things... e.g. the folder view had become like a web browser and Folder Options would not allow me to change that back to the usual and preferred folder options she preferred. All links and folders have to be double clicked, that used to be set to one click but I can't change that now either as it's a Folder Option thing too. When dialling the internet, it needed the password typed in and wouldn't allow 'Remember Password' to be selected, so this has to be done for every dialup.

I haven't checked but I suspect every email account may need the password typed in each time email is checked and she has about 5 accounts plus her flatmate and boyfriend have email accounts too, so, if it needs it typed each time for every one it will be a nightmare. I'll check with her about that tomorrow.

I logged off the new account and it comes up with a log on box offering the new account again but I clicked Cancel and it opened not using the new account but it doesn't seem to be the original admin one either. It's just a nameless one instead. I deleted the new one but we still are unable to get the option of remembering passwords and changing folder options. No doubt other things will turn out to be curtailed too. I need to get back the original admin user account and I don't know how as it isn't offered at log in, which now has to be done on each start-up.

Of course, even if I find out how to get the original admin user back, I'm screwed if it needs a password, as I don't know one. It wasn't me who didn't installed Windows on it originally.

If she can cope with it as it is, if I find no solution to the user account thing, she will use it until her course ends in a few months then we will get it reformatted. If, however, it proves unbearable as it is, she will then have to get it reformatted really soon, as it may be the only way to get administration rights back but we will try to avoid doing it just now, if at all possible as she really needs the machine just now and reformatting plus reinstalling all her peripherals, ISP dialup stuff, software, setting up all the email again (it is set up with lots of folders and message rules too to get everyone's mail to go to diff folders when it arrives etc), saving Favorites and email addies etc will take time she can't afford. Her research for uni has been held up so much already with the browser probs.

What a nightmare. Damned PCs!!!

Anyway, thanks for Firebird and Window Washer. Installing and running WW would have been all that was needed to find the problem as I would then have seen WW finding vast quantities of temp files and done the search that found the culprit then, before creating a new account and causing the new probs."