Hi Gerald,
In the end, I don't know and can't poke around to make a better guess as I'm running Vista and XP Pro - no 7. Some ideas (shooting in the dark) for what it's worth.
1. I'm not sure I understand the steps you took when you installed on your desktop and it all "worked". Did you install the net 3.5? Did you run both the vcredist_x86 and the net 3.5 installer before installing the basic panel?
2. Finding that the device driver didn't install correctly may in fact be causing the other app to fail. As you've seen, the documentation is a little thin. I had an entirely different experience than described when installing the software and drivers, but figured out the right steps for XP. I talked with Tim Owens and he stated that what I found made sense, as I wasn't installing on a Vista or Win 7 (laptop is XP). It sounds like you've already tried uninstalling from the control panel and reinstalling. Assuming your desktop and laptop are both 7 (not listed in recommended sequence, just some ideas to try/look at):
a. On the laptop, find your power management stuff and ensure that your usb ports are all set to never sleep when power cord is in. Same with the monitor/display and hard drive.
b. Run add/remove programs on both the desktop and laptop and compare the .net installations and the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008... in the lists. If something present on the desktop but not on the laptop and it is .net or MS Visual C++ 2008 related, that may be the problem.
c. Uninstall the app from the laptop, run a disk clean to remove any temporary files, reboot, and try installing again. This time, ensure USB is not plugged in when installing. After successful install, plug in usb and turn on Shark Controller. You may get a found new software prompt. Don't let it search the internet, select install automatically, probably have to click install anyway (not MS certified) and then see if this goes away. I found several things not written down or slightly different for XP than described in the instruction manual. I have a post on the subject
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=260, but again this was an XP Pro environment.
At any time since you've installed the software on your laptop and setup the shark, have you been able to jog the gantry from the basic control panel?
Did you connect your desktop to the shark and can you jog the gantry and have you run a simple test project on the shark using the desktop? If that's the case (it works from desktop) and the above don't clear it, Rockler tech support/NextWave may in fact find that there is something unique about the laptop setup/configuration/hardware that exposes a bug in their driver. In their defense, there are a lot of laptops out there, some with some pretty hinky proprietary stuff, and no manufacturer can test their drivers against all of them.
You might also be asked to uninstall either or both the .net and MS Visual installations from the laptop, reinstall, and try again. You could try this if a-c don't work if you want to:
d. Uninstall the basic control panel. Uninstall Microsoft C++ 2008 (may be more than one line with updates). Not sure about .net 3.5 in a Win 7 environment. Reboot. Download clean copies of Shark software and vcredist_x86.exe (this install the C++). Run a windows update (this will get latest MS updates to C++). Install basic control panel with USB not plugged in. Try from there.
And of course, none of my ideas may lead to positive results as I don't have Win 7 so can't try some things to give better advice - sorry. Hopefully Rockwell or NextWave will chime in soon.