Q Hopefully you can help as I have had no luck to date. Since upgrading to Windows 98 all the previous files listed under Start-Programs have been reduced to 8 digits. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

A ItÆs not uncommon for long file names on the Start menu to be replaced with DOS-type file names after uninstalling Windows 98 from a PC. Upgrading to Windows 98 may also cause the same problem. With a little bit of tweaking and a utility called sulfnbk.exe (which is likely to be on your hard disk already), you should be able to restore long file names to your Start menu.

The first step is to search your hard disk for a file called winlfn.ini. YouÆll most likely find it in the root directory of your hard disk, but if not, make a note of its location. Next, select Start-Run, type win.ini in the Open box, and click the OK button. When win.ini opens, scroll to the [windows] section header, and insert a new line directly underneath it. On the new line, type run_restore_lfn=, press <Enter>, and type uninstallpath=<path> where <path> is the path to the directory that contains the winlfn.ini file. Select File-Save, followed by File-Exit to close win.ini. The last step is to run the sulfnbk.exe utility, which should be placed on your hard disk during a Windows 98 installation. Simply click Start-Run, type sulfnbk in the Open box and click the OK button.

If you canÆt find the winlfn.ini file on your computer, you can rebuild your Start menu manually. To do this, select Start-Settings-Taskbar to display the Taskbar Properties box, and click on the Start menu Programs tab. You can remove any existing menus by clicking on the Advanced button, selecting all the contents of the All Folders pane in the Windows Explorer window, right-clicking on any selected folder, and selecting Delete from the pop-up menu. From there, itÆs just a matter of creating new menus and adding your programs to them. You can do this using the Advanced and Add buttons on the Start menu Programs tab of the Taskbar Properties box.