Bill D - I'd forgotten about the "attenuated" capabilities in Win98. I'll have to research a little to come up with the standard method.

You can go to Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information to see all the processes that are running, which would let you at least confirm that as the reason why your Norton can't delete something. It would also confirm an exact file name to look for to do a DOS-boot delete. (Versions of Norton programs I use don't worry about adware, so I don't know how accurate their report is; but some 'anti-spy' utilities may report "generic" names that aren't quite exact enough to find the file easily. You'd still have the problem of "aliasing" where a file runs under a name different than the name from which it restarts.)

There is a procedure for terminating a process for Win98; but unfortunately I don't remember it, so will have to look it up. Can't make promises about when I can get to it. In pre-Win98 times, you always found it under "how to turn of TSRs."

If you have a decent accessory, that works too. Lots of helper programs were a necessity in Win3.11 and Win95, some were helpful in Win98, most are "dangerous" in Win2K, and mostly they're just unnecessary in WinXP. Historical context is meaningful.

The "adware" is a real problem, and you probably do need an accessory program, in any OS, if you want some control. I've tried Ad-Aware, and am not particularly impressed. The only adware it ever seems to find is AdClick and DoubleClick. Based on the privacy statements associated with those two, I don't find them particularly objectionable, just annoying; and you can clear both of them just by cleaning out cookies periodically. "Spybot-Search And Destroy" does find and successfully delete a lot more junk, but the warning remains that much of the "dirty adware" that you really shouldn't have to put up with is a required part of the programs that contain it. If you delete the adware, you disable the program.

There is also the concern that a virus can disguise itself as adware, so a good AV program with current signatures is absolutely necessary.

John