The answer to your questions is, "Yes, you can do all those things. But you
shouldn't."

Why do you want to run setup again. What makes you think there are corrupt
files that need replacing? Or are you just grasping at straws?

Thing is, with few exceptions, the only good reason to run Setup over itself
is to repair the system sufficiently and just enough to recover your own
data, back it up to tape or CD, then wipe the system (reformat) and start
over. That's because over time you have updated system files, many, many
newer versions of DLLs, etc., and when you run setup again, it will often
replace the newer files with older files from the installation CD. But it's
not 100% about this, so you end up with mismatched files, broken Updates and
so forth. See what I'm getting at?

So, yes, Setup *shouldn't* affect your personal files or programs, but it
will almost certainly make your Windows system worse than it is now. Is that
what you want?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"John" wrote in message
...
i have windows 98 first edition installed on a computer. i am wondering, if
i
use the setup disk to reinstall the system, in dos, after it has installed
itself again, will i lose any customizations to my old system?

specifically, i am wondering if i will lose a desktop background image,
system drivers for installed hardware, etc. i dont want to have to
reinstall
drivers for my hardware, or reinstall other software. i just want setup to
replace some corrupted files, and be able to find my personal files still
in
their same place. can i do that, by running windows setup in dos, without
losing the items ive mentioned here? i just want to replace windows files,
not my own created files and installed drivers.

thank you