When I boot up my computer and run media player for the first time on that day, it takes 2 minutes for it to actually play something. Also, I have to use the old media player because whenever I use the newer versions they say internal error or parts of it just goes black. Another thing, all my INSTALLER files with the .exe extension takes about 4 or 5 minutes for them to be recognized or show their icon. This happens everytime I scroll down one of my folders and happen to have a .exe installer file in my view. I've scanned for viruses but nothing is detected by my virus scanner (Ontrack virus scanner). Could there be some kind of virus within my computer or a certain program...?

When did you last delete the temp internet files, and run scan disk and defrag?

Run an online scan at Panda to rule out or verify you are infected. Good luck

This is almost definitely not a virus, and just Windows 98 starting to deteriorate. The first one is some sort of bug with media player, the second is how windows tries to resolve different extensions when viewing contents of a folder. I have no clue why these bugs are happening though. Sometimes a good reinstall of win98 over the top of what you've got will do the trick. It won't cause you to reinstall programs you've already installed. But if that doesn't work, you'll probably need to clear out your old windows 98 and reinstall a brand new one. Brad Peterson b_peterson@yahoo.com

actually it sounds to me you have something running in background thats slowing you down. I recall using a program called GuardDog from McAfee & if the virus part of guarddog was activated & configured in the most secure settings i recall opening one of my large download folders (i admit it was large, 8Gb or so) would take about 2 min or so just to be able to scroll to the lower section of the folder. When i lowered down the settings of security level it would open in about 1 - 2 seconds. Do you have your AV program active with the settings high? try shutting it down & see if things open faster. If you would post back your startup programs, i bet we can find the culprit.. Although you shouldnt rule out the above suggestions as they are good ones also. How much RAM you have? try this... do a fresh boot, when fully loaded hit CTRL ALT DELETE one time & post back whats running, as it may be loaded with nusiance programs... such as LoadQM, which should be deleted. Hope this is helpful Post back results, A2Z

Thanks for those suggestions everyone. Disabling LoadQM did solve the .exe problem. My AV settings are set to high (realtime). And media player is still the same. Actually media player was still this way before I got my AV program. Here's my startup items: Explorer Ossproxy Mxtask Osa Systray Mxecp16

This will be of interest to you http://v-com.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/v_com.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_prod_lvl1=8 Click on #4 there. Personally I HATE auto-update ANYTHING! they will usually cause slowdowns & possibly more crashes (personal experience) Mxecp16 No Idea what that is, you might want to do an ONLINE scan & download a trojan hunter try this one ---> http://housecall.antivirus.com/ Good Luck