Nothing shown on 'Device and Printers' screen

By 'freestanding version' of Windows 7 Ultimate, I did indeed mean the retail version (as opposed to OEM pre-installed on a computer). I try to be as clear as possible, but sometimes a few things get lost in the translation.

I built my computer entirely from component parts and thus had to purchase an OS separately. Doing so really doesn't save a lot of money, but it does provide the means to select components that are most suited to my needs. The most effective upgrade I've done to ANY computer is to replace the HDD with an SSD. No more waiting around for PaintShop Pro to load. :) Click on the icon and *BAM* there it is.

I know it's ironic, but one of the ads I just encountered on SevenForums was for RegistryReviver, a program similar to the one which I believe started all my problems in the first place.

It's an ASUS motherboard.

Thank you for the direction in getting my profile set up correctly. I'm still limping along with the crippled machine, but have another almost ready to put online. The software side of it pretty much mirrors this machine, although the hardware is altogether different (MSI motherboard, AMD Processor, etc.).

I bought a software program that acts as a KVM switch and actually does a surprisingly good job. So I'm working on a contorted system right now... I'm working from the crippled machine as we speak, but run programs that won't run on this one on the new one, but still use this one as a terminal of sorts, since I can control the other computers on my network via Edgerunner Software's Multiplicity program. It even does a hardware KVM switch one better... It will control and you can listen to the audio from a remote computer.

Unfortunately, it only works on the local LAN. But imagine have a KVM switch connected to every computer in your house and controlled by one Master Computer: The one sitting right in front of you. As long as you give yourself administrative privileges, you can do anything on the remote computer that you could do sitting at it's keyboard and controlling its mouse. It even features a common clipboard so you can C&P from one computer to another without actually 'switching' back and forth.

I LOVE this program. When it was first conceived, I thought "NO WAY." The graphics will be horrible and the entire computer will be painfully slow. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more mistaken. If there's a delay, it's imperceptible to me. Everything's done over the LAN, so of course you have to have a good fast Gigabyte router and if you're going to control computers via Wi-Fi Lan, one that couples as a fast wireless router as well.

I seem to have drifted WAY off course. If there's a more suitable place to put the above rambling, let me know and I'll move it.

I have a total of 4 machines which I can control with Multiplicity. Theoretically, the software supports up to 64, although 4 are tough enough for me to keep track of, much less any more than that. For all practical purposes, I normally only control two at a time, specifically this one and the one I'm preparing to put online to use as the 'Primary' while I do a clean install on this one.

According to Edgerunner, The systems are not so intertwined that viruses could be spread among them any more so than a physical KVM switch would make them vulnerable. They do have a common clipboard if the feature is toggled on and selectable audio control, so the virtual KVM becomes a KVMA switch I guess you'd call it.

I started having trouble with the Asus computer long before I installed Multiplicity. In fact, it's one of the major reasons I installed it... To have a secondary computer which is not corrupted that I could control from the Asus workstation.

It's a long story, but my problems started with Nuance software. Specifically Paperport, version 11. The concept of Paperport is great... to allow paper documents to be converted to digital ones and stored on the computer, thus eliminating entire file cabinets of paper documents. Earlier versions of Paperport were actually more useful when a company named ScanSoft owned and marketed Paperport, but since Nuance bought the rights to Paperport, the software went quickly downhill. The consensus among Paperport forum members was that Nuance was far more concerned about copyright infringement and how to prevent it than they were about establishing a user-friendly, stable softwrae program. They created their own problems and problems for the user with their vicious validation routines. Once a Nuance product was installed, it was virtually impossible to get rid of all traces of it.

When product upgrades became available, it was not possible to simply install the new version over the old one. Oh no. That would be too straightforward. Instead, Nuance made it necessary to uninstall the old version, and thus came the avalanche of problems. Nuance's uninstall routine was flaky and often failed to complete. When this happened, traces of the program were left uninstalled but encrypted, so when a new installation was attempted, it too would fail, usually with some cryptic error message about 'A newer version of the software is already installed... Please uninstall before attempting to install this version...' Subsequent attempts to uninstall were thwarted because the uninstaller 'thought' that the program was already uninstalled. Ad Infitum, ad nauseum.

Thus my introduction to 'Registry Cleaners.' I reasoned that if I could eliminate all traces of Paperport in the registry, I would be able to install a newer version or at least be able to reinstall the old one. Thus began started my long and arduous trek down the road of registry blunders. I first looked for 'Paperport' and deleted all references to it, then all references to 'Nuance, ScanSoft,' and even to 'Visioneer,' the brand of scanner that put Paperport on the map many eons ago.

To say it was to no avail is the understatement of the year. After a week with Registry First Aid and a host of other registry 'fixers,' my system was so screwed up it would barely boot. So I brought in the big guns... The 'PC Problem Solver' software. Again, after investing a small fortune in various 'Fixit' programs, my system was so beaten and battered, I should have just bit the bullet and restarted at that point. But NOOOooo. Not me. I was determined to salvage Old Betsy, even if it meant doing things that I've been warned not to do. Ever.

I amassed such a collection of worthless software, I had programmers frothing at the mouth to sell me the latest piece of garbage they had to offer, which was no better than the last piece of garbage I bought the week before. Even Office Depot and Best Buy got in on the act. Their 'Geek Squads' extracted a couple hundred dollars from me before telling me that it was a hopeless cause and to do a clean install.

I self-inflicted a bit more injury by tinkering with Hiram's Boot Disk and all the goodies that it offers which just about brings me to the point where I am today. In need of a good stiff drink and a clean install of Windows 7. There's no turning back. I just hope I can retrieve everything I need off this beaten down shadow of its former self before I have a mirror image of it installed on the new (MSI) machine.

Thank you for your patience in listening to me ramble. But I thought rather than give it to you a piece at a time, I might as well expose the whole sordid story so you'd know how I got from where I was to where I am.