ome of them need to be running in the background to function properly, such as a virus scanner. They put themselves into a startup menu automatically when you install them. Others might not need to be there, but they load anyway to be available when you need them.
Now that you know how to find out what programs you have running in the background and how they got there, let's talk about how to do some troubleshooting to find the culprit.
To find out which application is the conflicting one, you need to take a systematic approach. There are two ways to do this: You can shut down all other programs, make sure the conflict does not happen anymore, then turn them back on one by one, until the conflict happens again. Most likely the last program you turned on before the conflict reappeared is the culprit.
The other option is to shut down one program at a time, until the conflict disappears. Most likely, the one program you just shut down is the culprit.
The best approach is to make sure a possible suspect doesn't even load on startup. Windows 98 comes with a built-in utility that lets you control what loads when Windows starts. Start this utility by going to Start/Run, typing msconfig and clicking OK. You'll see a dialog with several tabs across the top. The last tab is labeled Startup. In here is a complete list of items that Windows loads automatically. Note the checkbox next to each item. Uncheck the first item, reboot,
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