Whenever Windows starts, a message appears saying ‘Cannot import sys.reg. Error opening the file. There may be a disk or file system error’. The computer is running Windows 98.

This message is indicating the ’sys.reg’ file is attempting to be imported into the Windows Registry, but an error has occurred. This type of message is a symptom of spyware and/or a virus your computer. There is a reference on your computer to load this file on startup but, since the message reports an error opening the file, it seems Windows cannot find the file (e.g. it may have been deleted). Our first procedure is to delete the reference which requires this file to be loaded on startup. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘regedit’ (without the quotes) then click OK. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
In the right-hand pane, look for any values relating to ’sys.reg’ (for example: regedit /s sys.reg). If found, delete the value. Be very careful only to delete values which directly refer to sys.reg, since deleting the incorrect registry values could have severe consequences for your computer. Once you are done, close the Registry Editor. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Programs’ > ‘Windows Explorer’. Within Windows Explorer, go to the ‘Tools’ (or ‘View’) menu > ‘Folder Options’. In the window that appears, click the ‘View’ tab. Untick ‘Hide file extensions for known file types’ and enable ‘Show all files’. Click OK. Close Windows Explorer and go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Find’ > ‘Files or Folders’. Search for ’sys.reg’. If this file is found, rename the file.

Finally, run a complete virus scan on your computer. Then, download Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition (www.lavasoft.de) and Spybot Search and Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) and do a complete scan of your computer for spyware and adware. It may also be worthwhile downloading CWShredder (www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html). You can download a free standalone version of CWShredder from the above URL.