For some unexplained reason I now get the Windows 98 startup screen requesting that I choose one of the following options: Normal, Safe Mode, Command Prompt, Safe Mode Prompt Only. If I don’t choose any of the above within 28 seconds it will then take me into Windows 98 where I want to go but before it used to go straight in without the prompt screen and the 28 seconds. Do you know why this has suddenly happened every time I turn on my computer?

This startup menu normally comes up when you are running two operating systems. For example, if you are running Windows NT and Windows 98, it would be useful because you can choose which operating system you want to use each time you start up your computer. I assume this is not the case with your computer. It is a relatively simple operation to get rid of this startup menu. Go to Start menu > Find > Files or Folders. In the ‘Named’ field enter in ‘boot.ini’ (without the quotation marks) and in the ‘Look in’ field select your main hard drive (eg. C: ) or if you have more than one hard disk, select ‘Local hard drives’. Click ‘Find Now’ and once the file has been found, first copy it to a floppy disk (as backup in case you want to use it again) and then delete the file off the hard disk (but NOT the floppy disk).