I just downloaded some anti-spyware to my bosses' computer (he is.... ummm... technology challenged. With a great deal of coaching, he can be brought to tell the difference between a phillips head and a straight blade screwdriver.) which was afflicted with a plague of popups and god knows what else. Try www.download.com, and the free version of Ad-Aware SE Personal. It runs a very effecient search, and once I had everything quarantined and deleted--- a perfectly amazing amount of cookies and other nasties--- it fixed a lot of problems with speed and intrusive ads.

Doc,

Some things I'd recommend:

1) That Ad-Aware as above -- it's at lavasoft.de. Good stuff. Run it first.

2) Also, SpyBot Search & Destroy @ spybot.info. Similar to Ad-Aware, has a real-time module to prevent future infections. Run it second.

3) Try running both of the above, and Norton, in Windows Safe Mode. SpyBot can actually override all start parameters and attack spyware / viruses at startup time. Very slick.

4) Try finding Win98, 2000, or XP at a used bookstore for the re-install. It's an option, at least.

5) I don't know how to disable IE completely in W98 -- that was the most irritating feature of W98.

6) Can you use Task Manager to kill the offending processes? Right-click on Start Bar for TM.

7) Get one of the newer free AV programs. CNet has a list of them.

Hope that helps...if you can't upgrade the PC or one of the newer Win OSes, then Linux is definite option. It runs real well on the older platforms, and they have done a good job of making the desktops Windows-user friendly. The installs are even not that tough, but they can be initimidating if you're not a Unixy guy.

I agree with the above posters - adaware and spybot for the spyware, perhaps AVG antivirus (free!) as a backup to Norton, and running this stuff in safe mode since fewer background processes mean a quicker scan.
That said, have you defragged recently? A fragmented disk can make a really performance big hit on older hard drives and processors. Do a scandisk first.
Win98 doesn't really require much in the way of backgroud processes - you can kill almost everything without stopping the system.
Start Up stuff - try here, they've quite a list of win98 tips, including dialup control:
http://www.isctex.com/support/win98tip.htm
Finally, are you SURE you don't have the OS? Some pc's come with a copy on a separate 'hidden' partition on the disk. If you've the serial MS may send you new disks for 'media cost' ($25, hah!)
Yard Sales are a great resource for os'es at $10 a pop, by the way.
Generally I've found that 'bit rot' ruins a heavily used win98 install in about 18 months or so...

Pretty much agree with the above - you should not have to wipe your system, reboot windows, or g-d forbid buy a Mac or shift to Linux.

Three useful ideas that have worked wonders for my own merry nest:

1) Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are excellent, if what
you have is spyware (and it sounds very much like
it). These will get the bloody thing off your box in the first place, so that you can move on to...

2) Stop using IE and Outlook Express - there are free alternatives downloadable from the web that just do not fall for this crap. I use Mozilla Firefox/Thunderbird for web/mail. Opera is also very good. They have a lot more built-in protection against loading virii and pop-up windows than IE or Outlook.

3) Norton is utterly useless, in my experience. Buy something else. I use Trend Micro Internet Security, downloadable, and you can obtain a [paid] license on-line in no time. It is fast, effective, unobtrusive, and updates its library two or three times a day, or whenever it suits you.

Hope that helps, and you can fix your box quickly.

Sounds like you've got a big pile of spyware running as well as a virus or three.

Very first thing you want to do is boot into Safe Mode before running Norton (or AVG), followed by Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search & Destroy (SpyBot & Ad-Aware find different things, so running them both is useful.)

Safe mode only loads the bare essentials of Win98, so the infected programs (with luck) won't be running, and gives your virus scanner a head start.

You can delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder from Control Panel/Internet Settings/Delete Files.

In general, you can delete anything in Windows/Temp with a date stamp before your last bootup.

If you can update to Windows 98SE it will help with the stability of your system; when you're virus free, if you do the 'Windows Update' thing, it should update it if it's still available (can't remember if Microsoft actually went through with their 'we will no longer support' it thing); barring that, I'm going to be doing a pile of installations of Windows SE when a certain tech guy sends me the disk. Drop me a line if you need the 'last resort' treatment. Definitely get (and run) Ad Aware; definitely get (and run) Spybot. Run Norton, quarantine/delete what you can, but take note of which virus it claims is coming up. Run Norton again and if it comes up again, search on the web for a 'removal tool'. If viruses keep coming back, it's usually because some change has been made to a registry item or that there's some program loading at startup which reloads the virus -- Ad Aware should catch this sort of thing, but you never know.

A few months ago I had to help someone remove a worm from their machine. I can't remember what OS they were running (probably XP).

I recall having to shut off a certain type of DCOM service to disable the critter, via an option about 15 layers deep in the Control Panel. Then I could kill a certain process, manually remove some registry keys that caused it to start automatically, blah blah. Sorry but my memory is hazy.

Just for grins why not check out this webpage: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.novarg.a@mm.html I'm not claiming that it's the right answer, but the right answer is probably something similar.

And while you're at it, see if you can account for everything that's running automaticallly in Windows - check your registry for keys like HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Doing a ctl/alt/del will bring up a list of processes in Win98 if I recall correctly. You can probably Google every process on it to see what's running and what might be fishy. If nothing else you'll learn a few things about how Norton and Win98 work, anyway.

Good luck!