Number 206 - July 2000

Don't Mess Around
by Carl Tenning, Tacoma Open Group for Microcomputers
After reading the June 2000 TOGGLE and running across the reference to VCMUI (Version Conflict Manager), I gave it a try. It displayed a considerable list of files, mostly dll's, but some exe's as well. It shows those files used by Windows that currently have an older version installed than when before the last version of Windows was installed.     I was only trying this out of curiosity, not because I had a real problem. But thinking that using the more up-to-date versions might improve my computer performance, I highlighted a few of the files and clicked on the "Restore Selected Files" button. Everything seemed okay until I tried to log into my internet service provider. It kept saying I had a bad password or user ID, even when I typed in what I knew to be the correct ones. A call to MSN help (1-800-952-3513) verified that everything in my MSN and network setup was correct. They said that the problem had to be either a registry error or a corrupted	Internet Explorer (IE5) and that I would have to call the Microsoft Windows people for help.     Still thinking I could solve the problem myself, I tried to reload Windows 98 from the CD-ROM. IE4 would not reload because it said there was a later version of Internet Explorer already installed.     The Microsoft help people were very helpful (1-425-635-7222). To make a long story short, they determined that I had a corrupted IE5 and needed to reload IE4 from my Windows 98 CD-ROM. To do this I had to first uninstall IE5 by removing the IE5 key from the registry and renaming a certain dll. After doing this, reloading Windows 98 from the CD-ROM got me back to an operating version of Internet Explorer, IE4. I was now able to log into my Internet Service Provider, downloaded IE5, and got back to where I started before messing around. [Sorry, Carl! - ed]
Number 206 - July 2000