HP Photo and Imaging

I had the problem of HP Photo and Imaging Director not
appearing when I started it. Before I found this thread, I
tried uninstalling and reinstalling the HP software from the
CD. After the reinstall, I had a different problem: Photo
and Imaging Director was not reinstalled. The shortcut was
recreated, but clicking on it gave the message "Windows is
searching for Hpqdirec.exe. To locate the file yourself,
click Browse."

I went to the HP site and downloaded the IE7 patch,
CIT207355-HPCOM-PATCH-v8.exe, but when I ran it, I got the
message "This update does not support any of the HP device
drivers that you have on your PC. You do not need this
software update."

I thought that maybe the problem with IE7 was also messing
up the reinstallation of the HP software, so I:

- Went to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs and
removed IE7 (leaving me with IE6).
- Uninstalled the HP software (by putting in the CD and
selecting "Uninstall").
- Reinstalled the HP software, after which I was able to use
Director.
- Reinstalled IE7, after which I was able to use Director
but only with the Alt-Space trick described above.
- Ran the CIT207355-HPCOM-PATCH-v8.exe patch, after which I
was able to use Director normally again.