I have an old Compaq Deskpro with Win98se. I think that somehow the file association for windows explorer is gone. Here is what happens: At the desktop, I double-click on "my computer" and get the message that "this file does not have a program associated with it..."
Right clicking on Start button and selecting "Explore" produces the same results.
I can double click on My Documents, open it up and then navigate up through the hard drive, but I cannot open Printers folder or Control panel, same error.
Now, the strange part. I can open Internet explorer, go to View > Explorer bar > Folders and then navigate to open both Printers and Control panel by clicking on the left and the pane on the right opens.

Does anybody have an idea before I go ahead and format, reinstall windows?