(FORTUNE Magazine) – I almost feel guilty complaining about Windows again. I've complained about Windows so often that doing so feels like feeding at the same trough over and over.

But here I go again. I don't really feel sorry for Microsoft, since it is rich and powerful and I am the one who has to work more slowly because my computer can't get its act together. And it is very, very definitely Microsoft's fault that my computer can't get its act together.

I promised you I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 98, and I've kept that promise. I've heard very good things about Windows 98, but I'm scared to death that my current problems--which I'll explain in a moment--will get worse if I change anything on my computer. So I'm using an old version of Windows. I'm confident that Microsoft hasn't solved my current problem with Windows 98. I'm confident about this because I haven't yet heard Microsoft acknowledge that my problem is really a problem. In the company's view, what I have been experiencing is "just" a "usability problem."

I don't think so.

Here's my problem: I use Microsoft Outlook for E-mail, contact records, and scheduling. These are my three most important programs, the ones I start when I turn my computer on and the ones I spend most of my time using when I'm using my computer. Indeed, I use Microsoft Outlook exactly the way it was designed to be used. I very frequently send an E-mail message to one of the people in my contacts file to introduce him or her to someone else in my contacts file, or to make an appointment that will appear in my Outlook calendar.

But often, as soon as I start typing a name into the address space in a new message, Microsoft Outlook goes away. The Outlook cursor disappears from my screen for between 30 seconds and four minutes. I can use other programs, but I can't use Outlook. But Outlook contains everything I need to use.

This is pretty frustrating, particularly when I'm in a hurry and am just trying to send a quick message before I leave the office with my laptop. If I turn the computer off, I lose the message. If I don't turn it off, I have to wait for the program to come back. I'm not very patient about adapting my schedule to a temperamental machine.

Microsoft knows about my problem. Maybe that's because of all the columns I've written bemoaning their software. Or maybe it's because I have complained vociferously to anyone who would listen--the division vice president; the group product manager; the product-development manager; the product-marketing manager; the PR manager; seatmates in airplanes; my fiancee. (My kids have learned to tune me out.) And now, after more than two years of complaints, Microsoft seems to be listening.

The result is that a well-recognized expert on Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook was paid by Microsoft to come to my office and diagnose my computer. He eventually threw his hands up and said that he could not fix the problem unless I erased my hard disk and reinstalled every piece of software on my computer. Oh, joy.

The problem is DLLs, which stands for Dynamic Link Libraries. DLLs are files on your computer that contain the individual pieces required to get a particular program to run. In Microsoft Word, for example, a file called winword.exe contains the basic text-processing functions and gets the program started. But that file is small relative to the size of the entire program, and it relies on DLLs to supply it with printing, displaying fonts, spell checking, and other important features. Word calls on those other files only when it needs them.

DLLs were a major advance in the design of Windows, introduced in Windows 2.0 in 1987. They solved a major problem. Before DLLs, programs were contained in a large single package, called an executable. After DLLs, as the name implies, developers could create files that would serve multiple programs, and those files would be dynamically linked to the program that needed them. As a result, developers making one program could use pieces made previously for another program. In the case of a big program like Microsoft Word, it also meant that Microsoft could introduce new features without having to get every user on the planet to replace the entire program.

Unfortunately, Microsoft solved that problem without thinking the whole thing through. So now I face another problem: There is no system anywhere in Windows that identifies which program uses which DLLs.

Look, I'm sorry to go on and on about these obscure little files, but the fact is that Microsoft should have known this issue would come up. Software developers have now created millions of DLLs. I have 1,167 DLL files on my computer. And Microsoft has provided absolutely no way for me to identify which program needs which DLL. And that's a very big problem, because if I delete a DLL installed by one program, another program might suddenly stop working. And since I would have no way to know what I had done to create the problem, I would have no way to fix it.

My Microsoft consultant identified seven DLLs in my Windows system that handle what's called MAPI, the primary E-mail interface in Windows. (The acronym stands for Mail Application Programming Interface.) These seven DLLs are mapi.dll; mapi32.dll; mapiu.dll; mapiu32.dll; mapix.dll; mapix32.dll; and mapistub.dll. Got that? My expert said that when Outlook disappears from my screen, it's trying to figure out which of these DLLs to use. Maybe it's scanning my hard drive and giving each DLL a little test--I don't know. Other programs have installed DLLs that are similar to the ones Outlook uses. The only way to diagnose the problem would be to start with a blank computer, install Microsoft Windows, and then Microsoft Outlook. Then we could tell which MAPI DLLs Outlook installed and which MAPI DLLs could be thrown away. Of course, that would break another program--but my expert said I could just stop using that program.

I don't know about you, but I've been using Windows long enough to know that if I erase my hard disk and start all over, I will lose something important and end up with a different computer from the one I started with.

Here's the truth: I am sick and tired of walking on eggshells around my goddamn computer! I've already spent umpteen hours waiting for Microsoft Outlook, a piece of software, to figure out what it's doing so I--a human who is supposedly served by this software--can get my work done. Then Microsoft's own expert tells me that I need to spend a minimum of two hours backing up my computer, erasing the hard disk, re-installing the software, and hoping against hope that I get back everything I started with. Then, maybe, the problem will be "solved."

This is a usability problem? I don't think so.

STEWART ALSOP is a partner with New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm. Except as noted, neither he nor his partnership has a financial interest in the companies mentioned. Alsop may be reached at stewart_alsop@fortunemail.com; the column may be bookmarked at www.fortune.com/technology/alsop/