DJ2050 Install Fails and all XP Apps now fail to start

[Peter-S]

I installed the HP Deskjet 2050 all-in-one J510 series CD. But XP gave a warning that it needed to protect important files from being changed and I cancelled the installation. I think it was during the bing toolbar phase that it happened. The install program hung completely and I had to kill it. 

From that point on most of my applications fail to start. When I start any MS Office XP application they fail saying that they need to be re-installed. Non Office apps are also affected in that their config files seem to have been removed (They start up but have lost their personalisation).

I have restored my XP (SP3) to a checkpoint taken earlier that day before I started the installation but that had no effect which makes me think that the damage does not exist at the level of the operating system (nor registry). The next step is to re-install the applications but that is a big step that I want to avoid because it puts my system at even more risk of data-loss.

I find it hard to believe that an installation failure can cause such widespread and fundamental disruption to system operation.

I would like to hear from anyone who has had similar problems and who might have found a solution.

And I would like HP to be aware of this problem so that they can re-engineer their installation software to avoid this problem affecting.

Regards,

Peter

[Peter-S]

My IT support people could not work out what had happened.  All my apps had missing files that meant that they were useless. They had to re-format the hard drive and re-install all my apps and I was "off-the-air" for 4 days. They did replace my McAfee virus protection with Semantic and they said it picked up a virus signatures that McAfee had not spotted so I suppose the cause could have been an virus but it was a bit of a coincidence that my apps got wiped happened after the failed DJ2050 CD install. My Symantec checker could not find any virus on the CD. I am not going to try the CD again on my XP laptop (once bitten... twice shy). I installed the CD on my Windows 7 laptop though and that went OK and now I can print although I did select only the mandatory parts of the install (not the Bing toolbar etc).