Okay, for a while I've been noticing that my icons seems to be lining up in different order some times with out any help from me and my faithful sidekick mouse at all... only happens sometimes... last time I suddenly noticed there must be one short cut less on my desktop but didnt figure out which.... yes I do got a load of them on the desktop so much I've switched resolution for it... and I'm pretty sure its not because I uninstalled some program either... and today... soemwhere REALLY weird happened... know the IE5 icon on your desktop, yeah that one thats not a shortcut not removable to the recycle bin the one that always hangs with 'network neighborhood and my briefcase'.... I just noticed that its simply.... gone.... I noticed it after installing the netmeeting and a critical update from windows update website... I've been getting more than usual critial erros and illegal operations from iexplore lately, and yes its 5.01, but blame that on my 'get paid to surf the net' viewbar since its still in beta... Now I've scanned the disk for errors, scanned the registry, scanned for virus... nothing across, just what I expected since I keep a very close eye on what is going on on my desktop.... Anybody have any idea how to get the IE5 icon thing back to the desktop? I thought I could done it in the registry, but all there is are crap load of codes and numbers I dont dare fondle with... I did create another short cut, but then this one is a short cut after rearranging the icons it gets in the middle of them all rather than the old place ... nothing big just would like to get it back... since my recent experience with Netscape has not been pleasant I'd rather stick with IE5... somebody help me on this one

I can't answer all those questions. But here's what I can tell you: You should make sure you don't have AutoArrange turned on, because that makes the icons arrange themselves by name, date, whatever, without warning, and whenever they feel like it (but they rarely will do it when you actually WANT them to!). Also, I only have IE5.0, but I assume it's the same with 5.1, here's how you can restore the icon without doing any registry stuff. Go into IE and click Tools -> Internet Options... -> Advanced (tab) -> (scroll down about one page) -> check the box next to "Show Internet Explorer on the Desktop". If it's already checked, I might suggest unchecking it, restarting the system, and checking it again. You might also have to restart for the icon to appear, but it should. If not, look on your windows 98 CD (if you have the original 98, not second edition) for the PowerTools directory and right-click on the .INF file (don't know the name exactly) and click install. It will place a TweakUI icon in your control panel. From that control panel, you can setup almost anything you want that has to do with IE. Be careful, I don't guarantee the safety of a system that has TweakUI installed, and someone who doesn't have training on using it, because it's a VERY powerful program that can cause real problems if you change the wrong option.

Jeff ... are you the only user for your PC ??? AM7+

The TweakUI program is in "Powertoy" directory on Win98 disk, available from Microsoft and mirrored widely for Win95

Here's something else:Another way to get back what you want. Start up in Dos, when the C: prompt comes up type in scanreg and hit enter. A menu should then appear that has the last 4 or 5 backups{last 4 or 5 days}. Choose the oldest. That will put your registry back the way it was. Sometime back, my favorites folder in my IE5 just changed itself. For some of that other stuff, I know what you mean, I run several of the viewbars myself. Usually 2 at a time. One or more of your programs are clashing. That's causing your illegal operations. One of the first things you need to do is take off as many programs as you can at startup. Not the ones that you don't know what they do. The programs that you've installed. If there are any. Every time you install a new program, alot of these programs place themselves in the startup menu and they don't tell you. But they can cause problems. Alot of illegal operations. Slow shutdown. More lockups than normal. You can find out which program is causing the problem unless you are absolutely sure it's this viewbar. For some reason these things tend to be very buggy. Probably because most of them are in Beta. You can try to run as few programs as possible. To cut down on the illegal operations. Also you can get of any programs you don't use. And some of them you need to make sure you are rid of them by going to find and typing in whatever program you are getting rid of and seeing if it has left behind remnants. If it has you need to get rid of the remnant files. But be careful that you don't delete important stuff. As for your desktop you can access alot of it from your programs and create shortcuts for some of it to your documents. And access it that way. Sometimes if you find a particularly buggy program, redownloading it sometimes helps. But only after you've completely gotten rid of the first download. Or upgrading. Also you need to run scandisk and defrag at least once a month. I try to once every 3 weeks. I have some of the same problems you do because of alot of programs. The only way to combat that is to run as little as possible at startup. Meaning none of those viewbars. You'll have alot of problems if you run those at startup. I've found I have fewer problems to load one at a time. And not run too many programs. Just what I need. Also do disk cleanup and run maintenance pretty often. And get rid of any and all programs you don't need or use. The cleaner you run your system the fewer problems you will have. If you download any more of those paybars be sure to go to run, type in msconfig then startup and see if it's going to launch at startup and if it is uncheck it. And be sure to close all those programs at shutdown. I don't know if this will help but it has for me.