I am running Windows 98 with Outlook Express 5 for email and Internet Explorer for the web. At times when I close Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, ‘msimn’ (which is the Outlook Express executable) continues running and won’t close. This sometimes results in the whole system freezing up (including the box, that appears when pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, which says the program is not responding). In this situation I have to press CTRL-ALT-DEL again to restart the computer. Also, at times when I am trying to do a Scandisk or Defragment I’m told that there is a program running in the background (even though I am sure that I’ve closed everything down) and thus I cannot complete a Scandisk or Defragment. The Microsoft help page advises that the ‘msimn’ problem is caused by McAfee Anti-Virus. However, I don’t have McAfee installed, although I did have the program in the past but uninstalled it due to major system conflicts with other software rendering the computer almost unusable. I manually deleted each individual McAfee Anti-Virus file. Would I still have some McAfee related files in the background which stops me doing the Scandisk and Defragment and, at the same time, conflicts with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express?

As you have deleted McAfee Virus Scan it is quite unlikely that this is the cause of the problem. Even though you deleted McAfee, it is quite likely that there are still several references to McAfee Virus-Scan on your system as you only deleted the McAfee program files. These references, which could be causing the problem, may be entries in the Windows Registry or shared files in the Windows directory. The best method to correct this would be to reinstall McAfee Virus-Scan and then uninstall it using the proper uninstall utility in the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ control panel. However, this may not be a viable option for you due to the conflicts that occurred when you originally installed the program. However, if you were able delete the McAfee files on a previous occasion, you could probably do this again should things go south and your computer goes back into an unusable state. In any case, a McAfee based conflict should not be present since all of the program files have been deleted and thus McAfee Anti-Virus cannot be running. If you have tried the above procedure and found that the problem still exists, a second solution to try is disabling the automatic background compaction of messages. In Outlook Express, go to the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Options’ and in the window that appears, click the ‘Maintenance’ tab. Disable ‘Compact messages in the background’ to see if this makes a difference. If it doesn’t, I suggest that you re-enable this option, in case turning off this setting causes a further problem. A third suggestion is to temporarily disable any other virus scanners which you have installed, in case they could be causing the problem. A final suggestion would be to press CTRL-ALT-DEL and close all unnecessary background applications to see if the problem is either due to a third-party application or Windows itself. Normally, the main two essential applications (which cannot be closed) are ’systray’ and ‘explorer’. If the problem ceases, re-open the applications one-by-one to track down the culprit which you can then tackle with the appropriate action (eg. uninstalling the application). However, if the problem continues, then it may be due to Windows or Outlook Express themselves. As much as I dislike this suggestion, in this situation your best bet would be to backup all important data and reinstall Windows.

With regards to your second question, there are probably things still running in the background on your computer which you wouldn’t normally be aware of. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and close all applications and processes which are non-essential, as suggested with the previous part of this answer. It is unlikely that the former McAfee Virus-Scan running on your computer is a problem since you have deleted its program files and thus it cannot be running in the background.