For the equipment it should just be a problem on the client side, so unless there is some other issue involved in this case, the saves should be fine.
I don't know if this can still happen, but in early game versions it was possible if hit with a debuff or after removing equipment with a bonus required to use other equipment, that the equipment slot could be shown as empty when it was just disabled, so equipping something else would add the 'missing' equipment to the inventory.
If this happens again, try un-equipping and re-equipping, then equip a branch as a weapon or bucket or carved pumpkin as a helmet, etc, and see if that moves the equipment back to your inventory.
The redistributable support packages each have installers in separate subfolders in the '_CommonRedist' folder.
Did you try saving and reloading the new game before quitting? It may be time based, or it could be loading a later area of the game that is causing the problem (in that case renaming the My Documents D:OS folder and recreating it might help).
