System FilesI found MAPi32.dll located under (c:) in a folder called My Download
Files.That Mapi32.dll belongs in the C:\Windows\System folder. If you open two windows with your window explorer, one for my downloads and the other for c:\Windows\System, you can RIGHT click and drag the file from the downloads into the system folder. A menu will pop up allowing you to move, copy or create a shortcut. You need to move it to the system folder. Now when you boot, it will find it properly.
If you have Win98, you don't need to download the file. You have it either on your Full Windows CD (if your machine came with it instead of a recovery) or if you only have the recovery, you have it in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs and can access it with SFC. Just go to Start, Run, SFC and press enter. In the lower part of the window that pops up, put the pncrt.dll and point the source location to the cab folder.
(you can make certain that they are there by doing a find for "CAB" (without the quotes). Note the path to those and use that in the SFC source location. They should go into the C:\Windows\System folder.
Question ...... what is the registry and what does it do?
The registry is the heart of Windows. It contains all of the settings, associations and connections to other files within the windows system. It is basically an ASCII file, hidden and a system one which means that it is difficult to find as a file. An applet that is with all versions of Windows, called Regedit will find and open the registry for editing. CAUTION, unless you are VERY familiar with the workings of the registry, it is better to leave this alone. There are several parts to the registry called sections. These are:
User Software Settings...... Stores user specific application information.
Machine Software Settings...... Stores machine specific settings
ActiveX and COM sections.... Stores information on installed COM objects
Fonts section....Lists the fonts that Windows applications can use.
Run Section...... Lists the programs to run at startup.
Sound section.... Associates application events with sound files.
Uninstall Section ..... Contains information on how to uninstall applications.
Services and Device Drivers Section.... Lists the device drivers and services for Windows
Application Paths.... Associates executables with their install directory.
Shared Files.... Lists files that are shared between Windows applications.
Help Section.... Associates help files with their install directory.
As you may have surmised, most of these sections are accessed by various Windows utilities so that editing directly is unnecessary.
In addition to the registry, there are two other files that are hold-overs from the older windows 3.x days. This would be the System.ini and Win.ini. These hold lesser settings and some basic memory settings that are initiated at the DOS level. These are no longer used in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.