HP Photo & Imaging Director problem on a Win. XP Pro. in Windows domain

Hi!

I had a problem with a software that comes with the HP ScanJet 3670
scanner. It's called "HP Photo and Imaging 2.1 - Scanjet 36X0 Series".

I installed the software on a computer with MS Windows XP Professional
SP2 that is member of a MS Windows domain.
Using domain group policy objects the folder redirection is configured
for the regular domain users, but not for the domain administrators.
The folder redirection means that Windows redirects, for example,
the Application Data folder from its default path
(C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data)
to a shared folder on a server
(e.g. \\server\users$\%username%\ApplicationData).

In such environment the "HP Photo & Imaging Director" application
could not be run when a domain user is logged on to the Windows XP.
(The HP System Diagnostics says that HP Photo & Imaging Director
version is 4.2.0.133.)
The application launch fails with the following error:

Visual C++ Runtime Library Error:
Hpqdirec.exe: The application has requested the Runtime to terminate
it in an unusual way.

On the other hand, when a domain administrator or the local
administrator is logged on, the problem does not exist.

I found in the news groups and on the HP support web pages some
articles
about the error recommending two solutions:
(a) the users who run the HP Photo & Imaging Director must have
administrative rights in Windows
(b) full control permissions for the users must be set to the
"%ProgramFiles%\Hewlett-Packard" folder (in which the application was
installed).

I did both actions but it didn't help with the problem.
After about 2 hours of additional investigation I've found the
following solution:

-From the Application Data folder in the profile of a domain
administrator
(e.g. c:\Documents and Settings\administrator\Application Data\)
I copied the "Hewlett-Packard" folder (with "Digital Imaging" folder
within it)
to the redirected Application Data folder of a regular domain user
(e.g. \\server\users$\%username%\ApplicationData\).
After that the HP Photo & Imaging Director application started
successfully. I don't know why the application could not create the
folders on its own, but I'd say that the folder redirection may be the
reason.

As I don't like that ordinary users have administrative rights in
Windows, I undid the action (a) above as it is not required if you do
the action (b).

-- rpr. /Robert Premuz/