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Windows cannot locate a file needed to run windows......

When I boot up my computer, right before windows usually launches I get a black screen with the message:

Cannot locate a file needed to run a program or Windows 98. The system.ini file refers to this file which is needed to run a program which may no longer be in use on this computer. Use the programs uninstall program to remove the reference to this file....

Problem is I don't know what program this file refers to and all the programs listed in my add/remove programs area are being used by me. What can I do to get rid of this message. Win98 will start, I simply keep escaping this message every time I boot the computer, but what a pain!!

Patricia Siu-Lai Ho

mmoline, you may have deleted/uninstalled a program but still not yet removing its startup shortcut. Or there may be some files having corrupted in one of your program that leads the startup cannot load that program.

Go to start-run, type "msconfig" without the quotation in the open box, OK. At the system configuration utility, startup tab, try to locate if there is any program that you've been deleted but a task is still there with the box [x], unchecked that box.

But don't unchecked the box for :
ScanRegistry
TaskMonitor
SystemTray
LoadPowerProfile

Restart the windows, see if the error comes up or not.

If still not yet solved, try to go back to uncheck the other one by one sequentially to identify the source.

Let me know if it worked. pslh

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jatcan

Is the name of the file displayed along with the error message? It wouldn't happen to be symevnt.dll(or .vxd) would it?

Jatcan

minh_007

What does the error say exactly? It should give you a name. Adding for PLSH's comment. Regedit and look for the name of that file. First export that key to your desktop for a safety reason and then delete that particular key out. This work on 90% of these kinds of errors I got at work.