Yep:
1) When I launch BIPST as administrator, and fill in admin creds in the E2E trace window and launch it -- IE opens, message of No candidate processes found is received.
The BIPST log says it can't find the preferences.xml file and gives a path like C:\Users\Administrators\....
2) When I launch BIPST not as administrator, but do fill in admin creds in the E2E trace window and launch it -- same message and error as #1. There's a lot of other messages, but none look like errors necessarily.
3) When I launch BIPST not as administrator and do not fill in admin creds in E2E trace window and launch it -- IE opens, message of Error occurred starting plugin is received.
The BIPST log still has same error about not being able to find preferences.xml file and still gives path like C:\Users\Administrators\
Is there a way to change this 'default' location for where it looks for preferences.xml??
I would think it might be keying off the E2E Work Directory (though I know that goes a directory too deep)... or I guess Application Settings Data Folder (under Preferences > User) however, that path changes depending on which user I launch the BIPST with and appears correct (preferences.xml IS in that file path, as I would expect)..... so I don't know why it keeps trying to look for the preferences.xml file in the Users\Administrators directory? Which btw, does not exist... 
That's why I thought I had to do some special combination of launching with admin creds or not launching with admin creds, etc., so the directories would align, but I am not sure what other combination to try.
Thanks,
Missy