Why do you think reinstalling IE6 will cause the same proble? Your error message
says "SHLWAPI.dll not found"....that means it is missing. You need to reinstall IE6
to get it back:

Recovering From a Failed Internet Explorer Upgrade in Windows 98:
http://tinyurl.com/r5ba

Especially this section at the end, if you cannot get Windows to load:

"If you still have boot problems after you reboot, you should use the command prompt
to edit the c:\windows\system.ini file. On the command line type edit
c:\windows\system.ini.

"Once it is open, change the line shell=explorer.exe to shell=progman.exe. What you
are doing here is changing the default shell (that is having problems) from the
Windows Explorer to the old Windows Program Manager shell.

"Reboot Windows. It should now successfully boot with no errors into an empty
Program Manager shell. Use the File | Run | Browse drop down menu selection to
browse to c:\program files\internet explorer and launch ie5setup.exe or ie6setup.exe
(depending on what is there). Do a custom install and check all the Bold faced
options. When the setup program alerts you that these files are already installed,
tell it to reinstall all of the files.

"When the Internet Explorer Setup program is done and reboots, hit the F8 key to
bring up a Boot Menu. Choose Command Prompt and boot to the command prompt. Once
there, type edit c:\windows\system.ini and, once it is open, change the line
shell=progman.exe back to shell=explorer.exe. Save and exit the file. You have now
set the shell back to the original value."
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Gary" wrote in message
...
I have a PC that i installed Win98SE on and then went on to install IE6. This
PC is not on the internet and the only reason i need the IE6 was because i
have a HP Deskjet 3745 that needed a version of IE that was over version 5.
After about a week of the PC running ok, it was rebooted and came up with the
error:

Error loading explorer.exe. You must reinstall Windows

After clicking to get past this another error popped up saying;

Error starting program
C:\windows\system\SHLWAPI.dll not found

I have read through other fixes for this and as of yet have not tried any
because i am trying to find out what version of the above file i should have.
Before i installed IE6 i had version 5.00.2614.3500 and after installing IE6
i had version 6.00.2660.0000. This looks to me like a newer version, and so i
cannot see why it is causing a problem. Surely me extracting the original
file from the Win98SE CD will make the file too old. I am getting very
confused with all this. And any help as to how to get the PC booted up and
working would be great. If i reinstall Windows98SE i still need to have my
printer working and so will need IE6 again. This in turn will cause the same
problem. Please help me!

Gary