Hi, not often I need to ask help, most my help comes from just reading. But this has me baffled (not to mention highly upset). Its about that COMCTL32.dll. BUT, whats different about this is its not a particular program that screwes it up, other than Windows Explorer itself.Roughly 70% of the time, I have to (upon cold boot or restart) restart this darn machine sometimes 7 times before it will load windows. It happens EVERYTIME I make a change to my system that requires reboot (or not) - no matter what change (ie: turning virus on or off, installing, etc), plus the times it does it just simply starting it up for no change at all. I even have a spare copy (from format & clean install) in another partition to re-write to the system folder at a dos prompt, but that is starting to fail also. Again, no change is needed for this file to go ballistic. The time of error is the moment Windows Explorer begins to load. Thats when I get that blasted "Explorer yadda yadda page fault in comctl32.dll" - then nothing - have to reboot. AARRGG Does ANYONE have any insight. Again (becuse all the errors I have seen about this are related to a particular (in)Windows program - not Windoze itself) - it takes no change OR a change in the system to cause this. Windoze 98SE (all updates) -fresh format; 3 partition Abit BH6 w/Award Celeron 400 @ 550 128 MB 20 GB 7200 ATA 66 DMA Voodoo 3 3000 16bit SB PCI 128 Thanx so much Windoze causes ulcers - lol David

Maybe you have a corrupted file. Try: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7135,00.asp to download and replace. Good luck............................

I have tried file after file, versions, dates, download sites, etc - it just wont stop.

hey David. try installing the latest version of IE like IE 5.5 SP2. IE 5.01 & higher have comctl32.dll version 5.81. I believe you need to put two copies of comctl32.dll in two of the Windows System folders [same version]. 'c:\windows\system' & 'c:\windows\sysbckup' I mean place v5.81 of comctl32.dll in both of those folders (if you put it in one of the folders and not two you will continue to have the problem) Try this tip out. If this doesn't work oh well. And do not try to install Win98se in more than one partition (doing that always mess things up) Try using Win98 SE in just one partition instead of three. use Partition magic or Fdisk to merge the 3 partitions into one & then do a clean install of Win98 se if that'll get rid of your comctl32.dll problems.

Yep, both those folders have the same file. I am running IE 5.5 sp2. The Windows is in just the C drive from a clean format/install. Everything that pertains to Windoze/MS gets installed to the C drive, just the 3rd party wares in the big partition. Plenty of free space in the C, with the working temp folders in the large drive. Swap file in the large drive. Have played with ALL these configures - no good. Got me stumpped!! Most of the comctl32 errors are pertaining to progs OTHER than Exporer itself - dont know what to do - MS doesnt have (Ive not found it at least) a page about this file killing explorer, just killing other progs. turning this machine off (or crashing) has become a nightmare. But eh, thanx! David

Are you really using Win98 SE with all updates? Yeah Right!!! I've installed some Win98 se updates that I've found that you don't have. HA! I'm using an old PC with Win98 SE & IE 6! You should use Win98 SE AND your 3rd party programs on the SAME partition. Your one partition should take up the entire 20 gigabyte hard drive. Try doing a clean install of Win98 SE again but do NOT install your 3rd party software right away. I think one of your 3rd party programs is causing the Explorer crashes. Do you have Explorer crashes after you do a clean reinstall of Win98? If so it's probably faulty hardware or hardware drivers. If not install your 3rd party programs one by one meaning install one of them and reboot to see if Explorer crashes. If Explorer doesn't crash install another 3rd party program and reboot. Repeat this process until you find the software that makes Win98 se crash.

I do have all the upd's. minus IE6 - that is the version that starts cutting out other non MS media apps - so I wont install it. One 20gig partition? - pretty much defeats the purpous of parting at all - data recovery - if ya crash bad, why reinstall EVERYTHING, and not just windowz. Nah, I'll stik with Leo and others and keep the partitions.