text: how do i get my windows 98 program back to its original state ? all the way back to scratch. to start all over again and i don't care what is lost ? you might want to get details on making a startup disk and if that will work to start fresh???? there are also websites for windows 98 that may have all you need to clean it up! another suggestion is to just get a disk for windows 98 from someone and do a new clean install.  do a search for microsoft windows 98 and you will be surprised at the really good websites for situations like this.  maybe there's a utility that will clean your files and registry but leave the main windows program.