IE11 print/print preview broken after installing 3rd party app

OK, this one is a twist on a very often reported problem on these forums:

Internet Explorer 11 will not print and just shows an empty print preview page. (Edge works/prints fine).

However in this case I know what caused the issue but not how to resolve it. This issue CANNOT be repaired by the commonly offered 3 or 4 step Microsoft tips that are all over this site and elsewhere (disable protected mode, Low folder permissions, etc, etc,)

Here is the complete story: New laptop HP Z Book 17 with factory installed Windows 10 Pro. All worked great when first run. No issues. I installed Office 2010, Quicken, AutoCAD, Chrome ........ etc. All worked fine.
Then I installed a specialist program, 'Helvar Workshop' - which is a lighting control application that I need for my work and originally written for XP.
After installing the Workshop program it worked fine but I was no longer able to print or preview in IE11. This is not a new issue to me as it also broke the same functions with IE10 and 11 running on Windows 7. I only ever 'resolved the problem then by doing a system restore in Windows 7 and ultimately installing an XP VM to run 'Workshop'. In that configuration it did NOT break the print functions in XP's IE 6 or 7.

Having experienced the problem again on the new Z Book I went to System Restore and discovered that HP had supplied the machine without activating System Restore! Yes, I should have verified it was active before installing any apps ........ but seriously HP - wtf!?!?!

I could now just reinstall Windows 10 (I REALLY don't want to have to do this) and then run HyperV with XP. However at this point I am keen to try to understand and repair the problem caused by installing 'Workshop' and potentially have both this program and IE11 fully functional in Windows 10.

If anyone has a good understanding of the registry (I assume??) and would be willing to pitch some advice I'd be very grateful. I'm ready and willing to post relative screen shots of the registry or other info that could be useful. Fortunately I also have a 'spare' laptop with a fresh copy of Windows 10 installed so I'm not too concerned about playing in the registry as it's not too much hassle to reinstall the OS on this machine if things get out of hand.

btw: 'Helvar Workshop' is a free download from the lighting system manufacturer's website but I didn't want to put the link on here at the moment due to the problems it's installation can cause. If you do want to take a look at it Googling Helvar + Workshop will be the first hit.

Thanks for reading and in advance thanks for any advice.

Andy

AVguy said:

Having experienced the problem again on the new Z Book I went to System Restore and discovered that HP had supplied the machine without activating System Restore! Yes, I should have verified it was active before installing any apps ........ but seriously HP - wtf!?!?!

I've seen that on other brands of computers, both Desktops and Notebooks, so I think it's more a Win10 thing. Saw it on my own Custom Win10 Upgraded from Win7 so I made the change.

Berton said:

I've seen that on other brands of computers, both Desktops and Notebooks, so I think it's more a Win10 thing. Saw it on my own Custom Win10 Upgraded from Win7 so I made the change.

Yeah, it does seem that the default on a new W10 installation is NO System Restore active. Thinking it through, I'm not sure that it could be anything else. I guess a hardware manufacturer (HP in this case) who only part-installs W10 ready for first time user setup has no other option. However maybe an HP popup on first-run to remind that System Restore needs activation would be polite? They manage popup info about other kinds of much less useful stuff so why not System Restore?

Anyway ...... the original issue was not solved and whatever I tried (other than System Restore) failed to fix the IE11 broken print function. So I'm just learning a bit about VirtualBox right now with the intention of installing 'Workshop' on WinXP inside Win10.

Is eBay the only legitimate source of an XP licence now. I do have a junk Dell Optiplex with the original Windows XP setup disc but not sure if that will allow me to install XP in other hardware? Anyone know different?