I'm not sure if this will help, but you could try running tweakui (
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p.../powertoys.asp ) go to repair and repair icons to see if it fixes the my computer problem. after that if you have access to a copy of norton systemworks, try running windoctor to scan and try to repair errors in the registry from the office install. I think that any registry cleaner/fixer might work to solve the problems with what appear to be screwed up registry entries due to the office install (plus remember to save the changes so that you can undo them).