In Windows when I try and open My Computer, Control Panel, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, etc… the following message appears ‘This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists contact the program vendor’. When I hit the ‘Details’ button the information ‘Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module at 000:6964696f’ appears. Explorer then restarts. However, when I try to open Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint I have no problem. Could you please suggest how I might eradicate this problem? I am running Windows 98.

Unfortunately these problems are quite difficult to diagnose (even more so because the module the error occurs in is unknown) and solve (if it can be solved). Your problem seems to be related to components of the operating system rather than third-party applications which would make it even more difficult to diagnose. I would backup all essential data (eg. emails, documents, etc…) and reinstall Windows as, believe it or not, this is the easiest and least cumbersome solution. I am sorry that I could not be more specific about how to solve the problem.