(This should have been posted to the MISInfo Tool newsgroup, but that page
had been unavailable every time I checked.  The closest topic is here.  I
hope the folks in this group can help.)

I have a pc with W98 installed by Dell originally.  I upgraded to W98 SE on
my own.  Recently, I was unable to open System Information tool.  The error
messages indicated:

1."A required DLL file, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSVCRT40.DLL WAS NOT FOUND."
(I checked - it was indeed missing.)

2. "Cannot find the file 'C:\Program Files\Common
Files\MicrosoftShared\MISINFO\MISINFO32.EXE' (or one of its components)"
(I checked - it was there, last modfied 4/23/99, 140,360bytes, Version
4.10.2222.)

Also about 50% of the links in "Window Help" were non-functional.

Dell Support suggested I run a spyware scan by Ad-aware.  It found 13
instances of Win32.Swen.A, removed them, but did not eliminated the symptoms
above.  The Ad-Aware scan log indicated the registry tool might have been
affected.  Following up with McAfee (which missed the Swen bugs by regular
local scans) on-line scan and the Stinger tool did nothing to correct the
problems.  McAfee suggested that I reinstall W98 SE.

Mean while, I was able to open Regedit and MSconfig from the Start>>Run
window, and System File Checker by clicking in the link from W98 Help.  Did
not attempt to run them for I am not familiar with these operations.  All
other application I use frequently seemed to function normally.

I would like to get rid of the problem with the System Info tool, but wonder
if reinstalling W98 SE is too drastic.  Could you help by telling me:

1. Is my problem a serious one?

2. Is reinstalling W98 SE necessary?

3. I found the following zipped files on my W98 SE install disk:

F:\win98\WIN98_37.CAB\msvcrt40.dll (336KB, 4/23/99)
F:\win98\WIN98_46.CAB\msinfo32 (140 KB, 4/23/99)

Will extracting one of both of them cure the problem?

Two related questions:
3a. What is the purpose of msvcrt40.dll?  
3b. Do both of these files change after installation to reflect new
applications added to the pc?

4. Will I need to reinstall all applications installed after the last
installation of W98SE if I do the W98 SE reinstall?

5. Any other solutions?

Thanks in advance for your help,

niwhsreg