Thanks for your suggestions. Was afraid of that option (system restore). Had tried changing password and removing password from another profile, and copying original profile, deleting the original, and renaming the copy to original name. Neither worked. The latter had most files but not Application Data (AppData) folder, at least visible/accessible in the new profile, so could not (re)setup email software (Eudora -- I know, it is no longer supported but worked for me. Wanted to setup and then import all mail boxes into Thunderbird on my new computer).
I tried rolling back to a previous restore point (before issue) but that did not work either. Restore points are supposed to automatically be "created just before significant system events, such as the installation of a program or device driver," but I noted at the time that my list did not seem to have one created for all such events.
Am now in process of 'gutting' all my transition efforts and doing a system restore. This time I am manually creating restore points for each step of my transition. Hope this works if ever needed in the future.
Would highly recommend that Windows 7 users have additional administrative profile(s), which may or may not avert need to start completely over if for some reason it is / becomes possible and / or eases the transition for someone with more system administrative experience to cope with this issue.
Think I would have waited to take the leap to Windows 7 if I had known how easy it is for such a devastating event to happen. Am receptive to being educated if there turns out to be a reasonable solution (other than gutting and starting over) that non-tech professionals can manage.
Keeping fingers crossed in the meantime that it does not happen again.
