Computer Retard needs help

[One Winged Angel]

ok, Lately my computer has been really screwy, it's been lagging greatly and a lot of my programs won't start up. These are just a few of my problems.

1. (This one really only pertains to Mozilla Firebird users) Everytime I have had to open up the Mozilla firebird browser, I get the window that says that I need to select a profile. I'l select defauly then check the box that says to not display window on startup, but everytime I'm starting up the browser I keep getting that damn window. I've tried looking in options how to use disable it but can't find it anywhere. Can anyone help me out with this problem? I have no idea what I did to make this happen.

2. A lot of my programs are being screwy. Many programs have been getting the "****** is not responding." and it closes. This includes Explorer which happens many times. Do you think I just need to reformat my comp? The only problem I have with that is I use Windows 98 instead of Windows XP. I've heard it;s easy to do on XP, but does anyone know how to do it on Windows 98?