RSLinx and siemens software clash

Can anyone help or advise on the following issue I have just had.
Recently I found that I was unable to view any of the PLC / HMI nodes that are set up on the AB network running at work.

I checked all LAN and TCP/IP settings and all was fine. I could even ping the nodes from the command window to prove the connection but was still unable to view the nodes in RSlinx.

I even tried un-installing and re-installing RSLinx but still no joy.

When I thought about it the last think I had done on my laptop was install siemens HMI software WinCC Flexible 2007. I un-installed WinCC 2007. After this RSlinx found the conencted nodes without problem or any other changes being made.

Has anybody any ideas why these 2 softwares appeared to clash and what I need to do to get both running on the same laptop??

Buy VmWare.
Then run a separate session for each.
I run Vmware with one for all AB stuff.
A second for all Siemens stuff.
Then there is no arguments or fights beteen them
This way you can load winXP SP1 on 1 and WiXP SP3 on another session.
This keeps the main operating system for normal computing,

All you need to do is, when you run Rslinx, you can control the drivers you want to start manually, therefore when you want to scan, just enable drivers
and you should be ok, w/o uninstalling everything,