Bad day and PS CS4 crashes on opening files now.

Question

I was working with an FTP tool from Network Solutions today and it played havoc with my desktop PC (Win 7 32 bit). Basically, it turned EVERY shortcut on my system into an IE link. I was unable to do a system restore to undo the change (because files it needed to open were trying to open with IE instead of Windows Explorer). Long story short; I found a solution and got my shortcuts back, but only after clearing my entire Start Menu and taskbar. I've checked Acrobat, DW, FW, Flash, Illustrator and SoundBooth. They all work as before, but I can't get PS to run now. If I double click a picture it opens and as soon as the picture opens, it goes grey and I get a generic "Photoshop has stopped working" message and the only option is to close it. Same thing if I open PS and then try to open a picture or create a new one. As soon as the image is in the UI it crashes.
Here's the hard part. Thanks to a serious legal problem with my ex wife, I do not have my Windows 7 DVD or my CS4 Install DVDs so I can't repair this or replace it.
Any help would be appreciated, even if it's to let me know I'm S.O.L.

Answer 1

"All Righty Then" as Ace Ventura quipped.
I uninstalled Photoshop CS4 (left the rest of the Suite installed), and I downloaded CS5.1 Extended to use until I get the CS4 Master Collection DVDs to replace my other set.
The conclusion I reached is this;
Something in Windows 7 is totally f'ed up on this machine and it's something that Windows System File Checker nor about half a dozen registry tools can find.
I installed CS5.1, selected use as trial, and launched it. it took a bit to cache things up and after a minute or so I was in the UI. I clicked File and New. The default windows opened and I clicked OK.
It froze for a second and crashed like CS4 had been doing.
I did a system restore to a point about two weeks ago before the whole thing started, and ran it. It ran OK and I opened CS5.1 again (CS4 is gone).
File>>New  click OK and it crashed again.
Now it looks like I'll be scrubbing the entire HD reformatting and reinstalling Win 7 along with CS4. Unfortunately I lose Office 2007, Roxio Creator 2010, and Britannica 2010, but hey, if I can keep selling web designs I can afford to replace those.