Multitude of errors

[kdhl23]

I was asked to look over a computer that simply could not get on the Internet and see if I could get it to work. That would be no problem since that is what I do. My problem, however, is that upon startup there are a bunch of error messages that come up. An abbreviation of some of these errors include "cannot find setup.exe" "OLEAUT32.dll can not start" "yahoomessenger.exe linked to missing export ypluginregistry.dll...." "UDC.exe linked to missing export shlwapi.dll..." "dbghelp.dll not found" and last "dll initialization routine failed". Needless to say none of the programs will work including her Internet. Everything kicks back an error.
My question is based on her other request~upgrade to Windows XP from 98. She asked me to also do that for her. IF I do that, will the upgrade repair the dll files and clear the errors?

[pip22]

because off the existing errors, it's best to install XP as a "clean install", having first removed Windows 98 by formatting that partition. You can do that by booting from the XP CD and reading the prompts that appear. Using that method, any existing errors and problems will definitely be wiped off with everything else.

You can do a clean install even with an XP upgrade CD. Just pop the windows 98 CD in the drive when prompted, so XP setup can check you have it.

If you don't have a Windows 95/98/ME CD, then you will have to do an "in place" upgrade as you suggested, by installing XP over the existing version. However, this may leave existing problems in place, which is why a "clean install" is always the preferred choice wherever possible.