[R] getting R 1.8 or 1.9 to work!?

[booth n]

I've had a interesting day with R; can anyone offer any advice?

First with R 1.8.1. on XP Pro:

"R for Windows GUI front-end has encountered a problem and needs to close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience."

I then tried installing 1.9.0. and got the "information" dialogue:

"Fatal error: INVALID HOMEDRIVE"

instead of a functioning R!

I attempted to set HOMEPATH via XP user accounts and advanced...-  but all I
still have is the following:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>set home
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMESHARE=\\concol\concol$

, and the startup directory is the standard "C:\Program Files\R\rw1090"?

Help would be most welcome!