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I recently installed Windows Me on my system. This morning I tried to run Sysedit and was rudely informed that the file cannot be found or doesn't exist. Did Microsoft really remove this handy utility? Is there an alternative?

Alexander Ross, Boston

The system editor, also called Sysedit, is one of two utilities that were included with earlier versions of Windows but may not be part of Windows Me. (I'll discuss the other missing utility, System File Checker, in a minute.) To edit your system files in a text-editor environment in Windows 9x, select Start, Run, type sysedit, and press Enter. In Windows Me, you may get an error message when you try this.

Microsoft says that the System Configuration Utility (Msconfig), introduced in Windows 98, is a better tool for editing system.ini and win.ini. The other files you once edited in Sysedit--autoexec.bat, config.sys, and protocol.ini--are no longer relevant in the less-DOS-dependent Me environment.

You launch Msconfig much as you did Sysedit: Select Start, Run, type msconfig, and press Enter. Alternatively, you can open Sysedit by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, and in the System Information applet, pick Tools, System Configuration Utility.

Whether Msconfig's tabbed and structured environment makes editing these files easier is a matter of personal taste: If you prefer Sysedit-style text editing, select Start, Run, enter win.ini or system.ini, and press Enter to have the file come up in Notepad (or whatever program you've selected as your default text editor). Sysedit and Notepad let you do real editing, and thus allow you to introduce real syntax errors, whereas Msconfig keeps a record of every change you make.

If you've upgraded to Me, you may still have your old Sysedit file. The installation process doesn't always remove the old sysedit.exe file, which still works in Windows Me. Try launching it, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand, the Windows Me upgrade installation does remove System File Checker. This handy Windows 98 program scans your hard drive looking for important system files that have been altered and offers to restore the original version. This is valuable because installation programs often replace these system files with old, incompatible, or altered versions.

If you have Windows 98, it's wise to run System File Checker after you install an application. To launch it, select Start, Run, type sfc, and press Enter.

Windows Me replaces System File Checker with System File Protection. You cannot launch System File Protection; it always runs in the background. This makes the utility more reliable than System File Checker, since it can catch a program in the act of alteration. On the other hand, System File Protection likely contributes to Me's slower performance, and you can't turn the program off.