Rootkits are becoming more common. By infiltrating deep into the system they are very hard to remove without damaging vital system resources. You play a game of tag, trying to remove the debris from the registry, while the rootkit runs on ahead, reclaiming territory you thought you had cleaned up. One of my clients recently lost his Windows ME to a rootkit. We ran some great antispyware tools, installed a compatible firewall (hard to find for ME), but it was too late. Soon all of his files were inaccessible, although he could still send e-mail. Rootkits love to copy themselves over the internet, so they often keep this resource alive when all else seems to drag into infinity. One client reports the sound of a child laughing, which indicates the contamination. Auditory hallucinations, or the first sign of impending doom?
XP's firewall seems to be sufficient for stopping rootkit contamination, and Windows 98 does not seem to be a big target. I have a feeling that Vista will resolve a lot of these issues. Or you can always switch to Linux!
