Basic Question

[chg]

I need to remove everything exept the OS and am not familiar with 98 at all,could anyone suggest a solution or point me at a source?

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

One of the problems you will run into is the Windows Registry, if you want to delete everything but Windows 98 it can be done.

First: START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL |ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS

High lite one and hit remove. Do one at a time and remove everthing in there except any Windows 98 updates or Windows 98 if it is there.

Usually the Add/Remove Programs utility will alert you to the presence of shared programs and let you leave them on your system

There will be programs installed that may not show up in Add/Remove programs. After you remove what is in there reboot. Now using Explorer (right click on START then go to EXPLORE, in the left pane you will see all the folders on the drive. Go to the Program files folder and click on one that is left, in the right pane you will see that program files. Look for a uninstall file/icon and double click on it to uninstall that program. If there is no uninstall then you will need to use a uninstall program, as if you just delete it, it may remove some dependent Window files.

I have used the following program to uninstall programs that do not show up in Add/Remove Programs.

http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_9_104_23744.html

Second: Once all the programs have been uninstalled then run this program to clean the reminisce out:

http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_9_100_14447.html

Third: Reboot now run this program to clean the registry

MS Registry Clean (http://murfsgarage.cybertechhelp.com/regcln41.exe)

Reboot

Now go back into Explorer and see what is left. If there are folders left try deleting them, reboot and run the registry cleaner again

That should clean evberything up but Windows 98. There may be some folders you will not be able to delete because Windows 98 depends on them.

I would also suggest once all this is done that you DEFRAG the Hard Drive.

Do not delete any folders in the Windows folder, Do not delete Internet Explorer if it is in a folder by itself. Also do not delete any folders on the C: drive itself if they are stand alone folders as they generally contain drivers for devices i.e., a folder say called HP may contain drivers for say a HP printer..

Having said all this if you have the Windows 98 CD, your better off just wiping the hard drive clean by formatting and reinstalling Windows 98, if you really want to start fresh.

[chg]

OK.I guess I was'nt clear!The pc I'm trying to clean is'nt and wont be connected to the net.sory I did'nt make that known.its an old laptop I bought on ebay and gave to my bro to learn with maybe do a little bookwork ie.book keeping and sutch.it has stuff on it he wont need so I'm trying to clean it up for him+actually he decided to.thanks murf!can I download those tools+load em on his?

[Murf]

Run into problems please let us know.

[chg]

You must be psychic ha ha,the uninstaller program you suggested say's it must run on NT and bro's scared to to load it,also the registry cleaner doesnt jump out at you where does it load?I downloaded those 3 tools+B4 unziping the files I burnt them to cd+he unzipped and just running ccleaner gained loads of space.Thank you very mutch,the machine spead up dramaticly.