Shoutbox

Earlier today, I installed the Microsoft Broadband Networking Utility (from the microsoft website) on my Windows XP (Service Pack 2) computer so I could keep an eye on my wireless network easily.
This software usually comes bundled with Microsoft Wireless Networking equipment but I thought this wasn't necessary to run the software so I installed it anyways.
After the installation, I restarted my PC to find that all my system icons had vanished besides the power, bluetooth and my webcam icons.
Most of my Microsoft/Windows software wouldn't work either such as Windows Installer, System Restore wasn't working either such as not displaying restore points yet I knew I had some for that day as I set one before installing the MSBNU. Also my Sound card wasn't working nor detecting by my computer.
After all that, I had to put my System Recovery disk and start from scratch, lookly everything was backed up.

Now a couple of questions;
1. Do you need Microsoft Wireless Hardware to run this software?
2. Would this software be the cause of this system failure?
3. Would because I wasn't running Microsoft Wireless Hardware with the application cause this failure?

Thanks,
Hyped

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Originally posted by hypedupmonkey
1. Do you need Microsoft Wireless Hardware to run this software?

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Nope, it'll just disable itself if you don't have the Microsoft hardware installed.

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2. Would this software be the cause of this system failure?

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Maybe... but doubtful.

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3. Would because I wasn't running Microsoft Wireless Hardware with the application cause this failure?

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Nope, I've installed this silly utility on lots of PCs (laptops actually) where the hardware was not always plugged in and another WiFi card was installed at least some of the time.  It was fine.

However, just to clarify, there is no need for this utility (although the wizard is apparently useful, which I've never used).  You can actually just plug in any of the Microsoft WiFi hardware and when prompted for the drivers, just point it to the CD (without installing anything) and then it will simply install the drivers without the utility thus allowing you to use the built-in XP wireless applet.

Again, its just that I find the program helpful to keep an eye on my network. I don't want to risk installing it again before asking some questions.

I don't actually use Microsoft hardware. My wireless router and adapters are all from the BT Voyager range.

Has anyone else had trouble like mine after installing this application?