Question about Windows Start file.

I'm having a lot of memory lockups.

PIII 450 Gateway
192 Mb RAM
12 Gb HD
Norton AntiVirus 2002
Windows 98SE

When I look in Windows Explorer, my Start file is stuffed with everything. Everything.

Now, I recall a repairman once telling me I didn't need all that stuff and deleting it, but the programs were all still around, usable and fine. Since then, I have this new used computer which had to be crashed, reformatted and reinstalled twice since I got it this summer. So the Start file is just as the installation wanted it to be.

If I knock stuff out of the Start file, will I be messing with anything I shouldn't? Will it end the memory locks?

Should I be doing something else altogether?

there are many out there. I've used Ad Aware.

Secondly, as i recall (its been a while since I've seen 98), you can kill everything but explorer and systray. But I wouldn't swear to that... I don't even remember if explorer is the right moniker for what I'm thinking of.... Sorry.

The "real" applications normally live in your C:\Program Files\ directory. The items on your start menu are shortcuts that make it easier for you to start up your applications. The stuff on your start menu shouldn't normally cause any kind of memory problem, either.

You may want to change the size of your swap file-- I know sometimes that fixes things. Unfortunately, not being a PC-type nerd (mostly network and web servers) I can't tell you how to do that exactly....

then click "Run", then type msconfig in the box. You can safely uncheck most of that. Which should take care of the problem without having to eliminate any of the shortcuts in your startup forlder. It just places them in a NEW folder, "Disabled Startup Items".

You shouldn't need ANYTHING in the Startup folder under windows. Right click, open the folder in the start menu, and move all shortcuts to a temporary folder. Start putting them back in one by one. That should narrow down start menu problems. Of course, you should really be checking for spyware. Here are some links:

Ad-Aware:

http://www.lavasoft.de/

Spybot - Search and Destroy:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Hijack This:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Use the programs offered by these sites to get a handle on strange behavior.

http://www.annoyances.org

and look up your operating system for on line info and a forum. If you find it helpful they offer books with more detailed info. I found much needed information on my ME system and suspect the books for the other systems would be just as helpful.

Good Luck