I have a Windows 95 machine that is giving me the following error: "The SHELL32.DLL file can not start. Check the file to determin the problem." However, all I can get to is my desktop wallpaper? Any ideas? How would I replace this file if it has been corrupted? Thanks -

Safe mode does not help as I get the error there as well.

You can extract the file from the W95 CD using DOS, by booting with a "W98" startup disk (or some other bootdisk with CD-ROM support). Next you will need to know which cab file contains shell32.dll and the full path. Someone here should be able to help. This is the "format" of the DOS command (for extracting mfc42.dll from W98 CD) - typed from any folder: extract c:\win98\win98_62.cab mfc42.dll /l c:\windows\system It should be all on one line with a single space each side of /l Having said all that, this particular file can be updated, so there is a risk that it will mismatch with other software. Also it is not certain that shell32.dll itself is at fault. It might be better to simply overlay windows again unless someone has a better idea

Ok, on the Win95B CD, you'd want WIN95_17.CAB (win95_11.cab on the original floppy set) From DOS, enter: extract D:\win95\WIN95_17.CAB shell32.dll /L c:\windows\system .. should extract the file to the proper folder, assuming D: is your CD drive - if the file already exists, you'll be prompted whether to overwrite it. (naturally you'd use a:\ if your set is on floppy) IF your version is other than the 2 mentioned above, or if you'd like to make a list of your CAB file contents, copy&paste this and save as a batch file (say, win95cab.bat): for %%x in (d:\win95\*.cab) do extract /D %%x >>cab95.doc (again, replace 'D:' with your CD drive letter if necessary) That'll create a list of all the contents of the setup CABs on the CD OR... you could get the shell32.dll for Windows95 taken from Win95 OSR2.1 here (if that's the correct version for you). _____________________________________________________