Yeah, but I was deleting it from c:\winnt\system32 *and* c:\winnt\system32\dllcache at the same time. Plus whenever I've had Windows File Protection kick in, it shows a dialog like the one on that page. No such dialog is appearing now. I guess it could still be file protection, but it'd have to be pretty smart to restore even when I delete from both directories, right?

I'm *really* close to doing a reinstall. Probably about time for it anyway, I guess. Maybe I should think about upgrading to XP or 2K3 anyway.