At boot-up, Windows 98 checks to see if a floppy drive is present, which adds a few seconds to the process. You can start your system a bit faster by bypassing this drive check.

Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Performance tab and then click File System. In the File System Properties dialogue box, click the Floppy Disk tab. Then uncheck Search for new floppy disk drives each time your computer starts. You may need to press <F5> in My Computer to refresh the floppy drive listing after each boot.

Caption: Windows may start a wee bit faster if it doesn't update floppy info each time