I'll put it forward to the other Mods/Techs, see if they can think of anything. They'll post back if they do.

hmm bummer, I would have said try administrator with no pasword but obviously as you say they actually set the machine up correctly...i'll see what I can find but I think its a format job.

It's always seemed very dodgy to me but I'm sure I've seen "utilities" that wipe out the Administrator password. Not sure that I'd ever want to use one myself for fear of what else it might do though (e.g. download Spyware etc).

P.S. I doubt that you'll even be able to install an older version of Java with your IE 5.5 because your lack of admin privileges should mean that you don't have permissions to install anything

Here's a thought - run Windows Update (if it's not on your Start Menu because IT took it off, then go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Select one of the small updates and then download it and install it? Does it work? If it does, then you actually can update Internet Explorer (or bits of it at least). If it doesn't work, you can't install Java and can't do a Repair installation of IE 5.5 ..... or anything useful at all really !!