When I click Start and then Run and type in msconfig.exe, I get a thing called the Startup tab. There I see many programs starting every time my machine boots up. I would like to delete the unused files and duplicated ones. What will happen?

This program is the key to disabling a raft of nasty and unwanted programs that various software vendors selfishly slip onto consumers' PCs. A great many nagging pop-ups to register programs or to buy upgrades get placed in the Windows Startup routines, and msconfig lets users remove a check mark beside each one to deep-six it on the spot.

There are maybe three items you want to leave alone: ScanRegistry, SystemTray and the PowerProfile settings. All the rest can be eliminated, and doing so often will free up system resources and make your machine work faster and more reliably.

Keep in mind that if you remove something that's needed, you can run msconfig again and restore it.

For no apparent reason, my HP Pavilion 8755C with Windows ME locks up while I write e-mail or am online. CTRL-ALT-DEL will not free it up. The only answer seems to be to reboot. I had my Internet Service Provider uninstall and reinstall Outlook Express and had HP walk me through some sort of cleanup process, but this still occurs. Please help!

There are nearly 30 million lines of code in the Windows operating system, and it all must be made compatible with the enormous numbers of possible combinations that occur inside the PC when people load different software or connect peripherals like printers, mice and cable Internet modems. Microsoft's knowledge base of potential problems fills gigabytes of storage space and doesn't claim to cover all possible problems.

In your case, I am stunned that the folks at your Internet provider didn't urge you to shut down your cable modem and leave it off for several minutes. Just about everybody leaves cable modems plugged in all of the time, and they have a way of confusing their settings over time, causing many woes, including the lockups you describe. Try that modem shutdown trick first of all.

If that doesn't help, use the Windows ME System Restore feature to take your machine back in time to the period before the crashes set in. Your final option is to fish out the original discs that came with your computer and reinstall all of the operating system after formatting the hard drive.

James Coates is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Publishing newspaper. He can be reached via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com.