# this program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down...



## grannygear (Dec 5, 2004)

(Windows98, IExplorer 6 pkg.) Help, please! I was downloading a windows update that was almost completed when my cat knocked the plug out of the wall. I rebooted and did it again, and this time the computer just shut down for no reason (that I could tell). When I started it up again I started getting the message "this program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" when ever I tried to open Internet Explorer or My Computer. When I hit details, I got different messages every time, but they all said "explorer has caused this to do that, or that to do this, etc. When I tried to close them, they would pop back up again with different details each time. 

I thought that since it was stopped twice in the middle of downloading that there might be some fragments, so I defragmented, did a thorough scandisk, and a disk cleanup. I just had to start over 3 times before it would let me open this window. I just kept clicking close, close, close, only this time it just gave up and went away (for now) instead of closing the program, and I took advantage of this window to send this help query because something still doesn't seem right because the hard disk drive icon is just going and going... Does anyone know what could have happened, and should I try download windows update again? Thanks. gg


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## JSntgRvr (Jul 1, 2003)

Tap on F8 during Startup to enter the Startup Menu. Select Command Prompt only. At the prompt type the following:

Scanreg /Restore

Press Enter. select the earliest date where the computer was functional and press Enter. Restart the computer.

If an error is retuned, click on he Details and post its contents in a reply.


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## JohnC543 (Apr 21, 2002)

Grannygear
Did you try what JSntgRvr suggested? What happened? I tried it and I got an invalid entry remark. I'm running Windows95A. Curious.


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## JSntgRvr (Jul 1, 2003)

This command is not available in Windows 95.


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## JSntgRvr (Jul 1, 2003)

From : http://kb.indiana.edu/data/aifl.help?cust=981395.65022.131

Windows 95

Use either of the methods described below to restore the registry in Windows 95:

Using Regedit.exe to export and import the registry

Use the Registry Editor program (Regedit.exe) in the real-mode MS-DOS environment to export and import the registry files. For information about how to do this, see article 131352 in the Microsoft knowledge base. For information about backing up the registry, see article 132332 in the Microsoft knowledge base.

You can access Microsoft's knowledge base at:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Renaming the registry files and reinstalling Windows

Restart your computer. When you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, press F8. Then, from the Startup screen, choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only.

At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing Enter after each line:

attrib -r -s -h system.1st
ren system.1st system.ba0
cd windows
attrib -r -s -h system.dat
attrib -r -s -h system.dao
attrib -r -s -h user.dat
attrib -r -s -h user.dao
rename system.dat system.ba0
rename system.dao system.ba1
rename user.dat user.ba0
rename user.dao user.ba1

Restart the computer. You may need to run the Windows setup program again.

An easy way to back up the registry before you do any editing is to copy the user.dat and system.dat files mentioned above. If the computer doesn't boot normally, boot with a bootable floppy, switch to the C:\Windows directory, and rename system.ba0 and user.ba0 to system.dat and user.dat , respectively.


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## grannygear (Dec 5, 2004)

Hi,

On this computer I hit F2 to get to the startup menu, and there is no F8 command in it anywhere, nor could I find anywhere or anyway to type in a command. ??now


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## JSntgRvr (Jul 1, 2003)

Start the computer with a Windows 98 startup diskette. If you do not have a diskette you can download one at:

http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

The computer will start at a Menu. Select Command Prompt without CD Support.

At the prompt type the following and press Enter after each line:

C:
cd\
cd windows
cd command
Scanreg /Restore

Select the earliest date where the computer was functional and press Enter. Restart the computer.


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