Windows98FE/SE/WME  withIE6x (IE6.0/IE6SP1) Causes Freeze-ups While Doing File Deletes

When deleting a quantity of files in a group or individually, and when you've deleted a cumulative total of approx 1500 files (most times much less than 1500, but occasionally more) within the same boot process the browser will Freeze when the end of the deletion finishes, and you have to wait for about 30 seconds later when it may resume but is now crippled where as soon as you try to do some basic tasks like even a single copy/paste/rename again, it will freeze instantly, and so on - at that point the best way to get back proper operation is to reboot (start> shutdown> restart).  The file size of the items deleted are not relevant here and it's only the Quantity of files deleted that can cause this anomaly to occur, and because of that you only need to use very small zerobyte txt files to set if off and so for for techs who want to test and observe this problem in action - for your testing convenience you can use these pre-made 2500 blank zerobyte text files.  (To test just Select All & Delete; also from the Recycle Bin you can then Select All & Restore)  Many times though depending on various factors the problem can manifest by deleting much less than the threshold and in some instances happens when only deleting a few, or just renaming files, or several other similar functions can cause it to freeze-up also, but all of which are related to the same issue.

There is really no official fix or way around this problem yet.  Microsoft was made aware of this problem right along, but since the life cycle for W98x is over now it may never get fixed even though this problem absolutely has been present ever since IE6 was officially released in August of 2001, and likely even before while in beta.

When this bug is in process it also causes many different variations of problems. This bug has been well documented and reported by many users and talked about by many different technicians over the years, and to this date there is not one system that we know of that has W98x with IE6x installed on it, that does not have, or cannot be shown, to exhibit the problem when the threshold quantity of deleted files is reached within the same boot process.  Many people within the course of one reboot cycle may never reach that file delete threshold though and will not experience the problem, but when (not if) they do they may never associate it with an IE6 problem and just figure it's a normal glitch and restart never reporting it.  Occasionally there were some W98x technicians when hearing of this problem were curious but said they've never came across nor realized what it was yet - but when they were personally shown on their own W98x computer setups how to set it off and finally recognize it for themselves, shows why we had always been able to duplicate the problem.

It is known that swapping 2 specific dll files from the IE5.5 versions of IE into IE6 in some way bypasses the problem, and it does work very well, but keep in mind when using v5 in place of v6 dlls that if there were any actual security affected changes made within and connected to these dlls, then obviously those changes are not present - however realistically in time perspective since Windows98 isn't supported nor updated anymore, then I think comparatively it makes little difference anymore anyway - in all ways it's refreshing to use the v5 dll's just for the benefit of avoiding everything to do with this anomaly.  I've used the dll swap method for years, and even had once made and offered a dllswap download of a nifty quick swap file procedure to make it easy to implement between the v5 & v6 dll files being in place, and still use it to this day.

I have done extensive testing with this issue in many different scenarios. A brief mention is that I've done fresh from scratch W98FE & W98SE installs of which it was so fresh I had not even installed graphic, sound, or other drivers yet before testing to eliminate any possibilities it was being caused by basic driver interference; also at first keeping with the IE version that came stock with each of those OS's it was shown that this delete/hang problem does not exist at all pre-IE6 levels.  Methodically I upgraded each install to the next version build of IE as testing went along, and in each case everything was fine with all versions of IE4x through IE5x, but the moment I upgraded to any version of IE6x is where this anomaly starts happening. It did not matter if instead of a progressive IE upgrade on these fresh installs or if I went straight to installing IE6x directly - which I did it that way and every way you can think of, and found it did not make any difference whether IE6x was an upgrade or installed straight away.  I also did this same procedure on two entirely different systems with entirely different motherboard brands including all other hardware throughout just to eliminate any possibilities it was hardware related (even though I had many confirmations from others it didn't matter and happens on all hardware setups) ..but for me all of my different hardware setups produced the same results confirming that it's not hardware/machine/software specific - it's just an IE6x issue where the problem exists, when combined with W98x.  

Other websites also have reported this bug and have listed their details and variances of how the problem manifests itself other than what I've given here right now. One of these websites is by Microsoft MVP Chris Quirke: http://cquirke.mvps.org/bexp1.htm

Also another older site that talks about it is at: win98ie6filesproblem.htm

Also in January 2007 we've found a great website that not only talks about this problem but the wonderful thing is that some of its members have the technical ability to effect change with it.  Some work had been done and a release was offered even though it does state the patch is not a fix in the true sense but a workaround.  I had been exclusively testing their shell32.dll fix for a continuous 6 month period and had noticed some positive results, however in my experience the annoying anomaly still can and does happen, and so I've gone back to using the v5 dllswap method mentioned above. At least it was being looked into though and that is greatly appreciated. It seems further development has now stopped, but you can still read about it at their website shell32.dll fix fix for Explorer lockups

It would be wonderful if someone that has the technical ability would fix this problem completely so that when using IE6 we could leave the latest updated IE6 browse*dlls in place as it should be, and may the universe do well by the person who does!   However as you can imagine these days fewer and fewer people use W98x anymore anyway, and so more than likely this anomaly will be left as is.

~ The use of any files or suggestions is solely the responsibility of the user.

(problem noted since August of 2001 - webpage updated 2007)

Rick