HP M2727 and blank desktop/no taskbar issue

I recently purchased the above multi-function printer. Installed all
the software that came with it. Since then, whenever I log back onto
my PC, I have no desktop or taskbar. (running WinXP SP2) I rolled
back
to before installing the software and all is fine. I called HP
support
about this and they say that I have to uninstall dot NET framework
2.0
and only have 1.1 installed. This sounds ridiculous... has anyone
ever
heard of this before? According to HP, if I have to have dot NET 2.0,
then I should return my printer or uninstall all the software and set
it up as a printer only using only the printer driver. Great...so I
lose all the functionality that attracted me to purchasing it.

Looking for comments / fixes / advice of some sort here...thanks.