I am running Windows 98. When using the Internet, unwanted/uninvited programs install themselves on my hard drive. Usually, these are removed when the history folder is cleared; however some have stayed on. I have tried to remove these programs by using the Add/Remove facility, but get the message that the file program.exe cannot be located. Can you please suggest ways I can remove these programs as I like to keep my hard disk as uncluttered as possible.

This is a very unusual situation. Normally programs cannot be downloaded onto your computer without the user’s consent and even if it does automatically download something, the user normally has the opportunity to cancel the download (unless it is a very small file and downloads very quickly). The way to stop this if you are using Internet Explorer (which comes with Windows 98) is to go into Internet Explorer, click the ‘View’ menu > Internet Options and click on the ‘Security’ tab. Make sure that ‘Internet Zone’ is selected in the ‘Zone’ drop down box, and in the area below that (where the security settings are), click the ‘High (most secure)’ radio button so a black dot appears in the white circle beside the name. This will stop anything being downloaded onto your computer without your consent. The message you are receiving when you try to remove the programs from the ‘Add/Remove’ only occurs when it cannot find the program to uninstall which means that it has already been deleted. If you are still concerned, I suggest you check all of the directories of your hard disk for any unwanted programs.