While trying to install the mysql essentials I noticed it offered no configuration information. Confused, I uninstalled then re-installed. 2 hours later, still nothing could be done to get it to work. I had the Workbench but no Server and it was frighteningly strange because it never told me that it didn't install the server, it just quietly installed everything else. The server is pretty much the reason I came to the download site, not to find all the other extras.
Finally I found a location to download the server itself and got an error that could be tracked somewhere. "Could not access network location \Hewlett-Packard\\"
This site shows the error and a possible fix. I only had one of the keys in the registry that they had but once I removed it, it allowed the installation to continue.
http://blog.unixwiz.net/2012/01/could-not-access-network-location-hewlett-packard-error.html
As a side note, I called HP support to hear them say - we don't support 3rd party software and we have never heard of this program. Needless to say after all my frustration before finding this fix, I blew up on them, they have never heard of mysql - my buttocks.
I hope this will help anyone that runs into this problem. It certainly will make me hesitant to ever purchase another HP computer but at least I thought it a way to cure another person's ills by posting it for them and saving them the drama I just experienced.
Thanks