I think my computer is healthy again

I brought the computer back to Windsor with me, just in case I had to resort to purchasing a new computer or new drive or something silly. Instead, I got some good advice from one of the geeks working in a local computer store. They gave me a bootable Win98 diskette. Basically, they told me that if I could get the computer booted up in DOS, I would be able to go to the directory where the Windows Setup files are, and re-install Windows.

I tried that, and with some exceptions, it seems to have worked. The setup program seemed smart enough to realize that some of the programs were already installed (and were at a more up-to-date version than what was on the original installation files), and these were left alone. The only "lost" settings seem to be some registry settings and password files.

I have noticed a bug with Windows Update... since this program lost the registry settings that tell it what version of programs I am working with, it "thinks" I need some updates that I already have. That wouldn't be so bad; but when I try to apply the update (so it can refresh the list of program updates installed), it tells me that it has skipped the update (ostensibly because I don't need it), but it keeps telling me that I need to reboot my computer to continue with the updating procedure. After the third reboot, I figured that it didn't really know what was going on.

Except for that annoyance, and the fact that my firewall is again asking whether programs may be permitted to use the internet, I seem to have not lost anything.

And that's WITHOUT having to resort to restoring my programs from backup. I wonder if I should just leave well-enough alone?