I'm here

Dirk, you're genius. After trying and trying and reinstalling XP and messing and breaking everything else (removing the 82350 what feels like 300 times) now I finally figured it out thanks to your genius tip. On XP at least I now have my 5890/5972 running!! Also I can access a 6980 with a 5972 attached, plus autosampler, and control everything, and with the new user with restricted (denied) write permissions on C:/ but ONLY the root directory on C:/ (no inheritances or other directories) MSDA comes up just fine! WHAT A RELIEF!
I haven't tried installing 1701BA on 7 or 10, but I imagine it works sort of that way, but yes, a walkthrough by screensharing would surely be of great help, as I think you mentioned the tweaking of the win.ini and other hacks? In the meantime - thanks again for pointing me in the right direction

)))