During bootup I get a DOS prompt after a message appears that tells me that the computer cannot find win.com. I have to direct the computer to the windows directory manually (cd c:\windows, etc) which allows the computer to boot normally to completion. It is an inconvenience and I cannot find where the corruption is. I checked regedit and ran a search and could not find win.com. I also checked all sysedit files and it was not there either. I ran a windows file corruption utility (win 98) and found nothing. The problem occurred after removal of a large database program. I subsequently reloaded the program and it runs fine but the bootup problem presists. My OS is Win 98 original

I don't know how to fix the problem, however I can give you a workaround. If you have a c:\autoexec.bat file, open it with notepad and add 'c:\windows\win.com' to the end of it. If you don't have the autoexec.bat file, create it with that one line.

If I'm reading this correctly - WIN.COM resides in the Windows root directory. (sounds like it's still there, but the path to it is corrupt). Edit C:\MSDOS.SYS (which may be hidden, system, read only) - if so, change it as follows: attrib msdos.sys -h -s -r Open the file (w/EDIT) and look for Path: WinDir=xxx WinBootDir=xxx Make sure, these point to your Windows directory. Set the file attributes back: attrib msdos.sys +h +s +r

you might try deleting your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. They were only important to Dos. Not windows, but can still cause some programs to load on startup when its not needed.

you might try deleting your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. They were only important to Dos. Not windows, but can still cause some programs to load on startup when its not needed. err.. or atleast rename them.