Like this!

OK, I recieved a call this evening from a man in our town who is having computer problems.

He started a program and the computer froze. He restarted and the computer came back on fine. It showed the mouse, the wallpaper, played the opening music and then sat. It will not show the icons or taskbar.

The Ctrl-Alt-Delete menu can be opened, but only four programs are displayed - Explorer, G-something-32 and two other programs which he has installed. Systray is not listed.

If the Windows button on the keyboard is pressed, Kernel32.exe performs an illegal operation and the computer freezes. We can, however, get the computer to start in Safe Mode.

This does not appear to be virus damage.

The computer is an HP running Windows 98.

Any suggestions?

This family believes that I am a "computer magic man" and can do anything on the computer, and I don't want to let them down.... (I'm not saying I don't want them to think I'm not magic - I just want to fix their computer). ANY thoughts or possible things I can try would be of much help. I am an active Registry editor, just in case your suggestion happens to involve the Registry.