When I open any folder in Windows 98 the extra folder info is not displayed on the left hand side of the folder window. The clouds picture and folder name are there but not any of the extra info under it. This includes the “Empty Recycle Bin” and “Show Folder Contents” buttons in the Recycle Bin and Windows program files and system folders. This is very annoying because it means I can’t see any of my file info or see picture previews when I click once on them. I would prefer not to have to reinstall Windows to rectify this problem. I have tried resetting all my folders, viewing all folders as web pages, using TweakUI to rebuild associations and the system files but none of these worked. Any ideas?

The information displayed in the left hand pane of folder windows is written in HTML and contained in a template file named ‘folder.htt’. The default template for all folders is contained in the C:WINDOWSWEB directory. However, in folders which require a specific, customised ‘folder.htt’ file (eg. for C:PROGRAM FILES, C:WINDOWSSYSTEM, etc…) the template file is stored in the directory for which the template is used . You will be able to see the ‘folder.htt’ file if you go to the ‘Tools’ menu (or ‘View’ menu depending on your version of Windows) in Windows Explorer and open the ‘Folder Options’, click the ‘View’ tab, click to enable ‘Show hidden files and folders’, click ‘Ok’ to get out of the folder options, and then go to a directory which has a customised template (eg. C:PROGAM FILES). What you see should look like any other of your ‘folder.htt’ files. You can find a more detailed explanation of the purpose and uses of the ‘folder.htt’ file(s) at: support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q181/6/89.ASP . Specific to your query, it seems that all of your ‘folder.htt’ files have been corrupted, somehow. The easiest, and possibly only, way to fix this problem would be to reinstall Windows. I have found two articles in Microsoft Knowledge Base which addresses your problem. The first article, located at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q254/0/17.ASP , deals with the problem of not getting the ‘Show files’ link so you can view the files in the program files directory and the Windows system directory. This article advises that the only way to fix the problem is to reinstall Windows and just extracting new ‘folder.htt’ files from the Windows 98 CD is not sufficient. The second article I have, located at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/5/73.ASP , deals with the problem of not getting image previews in Windows folders. These instructions tell you how to fix the problem without reinstalling Windows, however, if you do need to reinstall Windows then there isn’t much point in fixing this problem as per the instructions in MSKB (since the problem should be fixed during the reinstall). So it looks as if there is no escaping from the need to reinstall Windows . However, wait about two weeks before doing this incase any other readers have suggestions on how to fix this problem without reinstalling Windows.