I suspect that a problem I have learned to live with for years is preventing the upgrade installing......
When I open Photoshop 7, I have to click through 4 messages saying:
"The procedure entry point cess could not be located in the dynamic link library MSVCRT10.dll"
and five messages saying:
"The procedure entry point isterWindowMessageA could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll"
Obviously I've mistakenly deleted these files in the past.
Can they be acquired?
Thanks in advance

Arnold,Yes you can replace those files(they are M$ files and have nothing to do with Adobe).I know the MSVCRT10.dll file does get damaged/altered when installing or removeing some softwear. When I took Lightwave off my system,it took several important M$ dll's with it(crap). Do a search on Google for ".dll"...there is a site that has most M$ dll's for download. PLEASE NOTE: This is a very legal thing to do as you are replaceing missing or damaged OS files. They have nothing to do with Adobe(or any other softwear programs),and will not allow a user to "crack" a warze version. However,you said..."learned to live with for years"...sounds like it's time for a reformat,and clean installe of your OS and all programes anyway. SWAMP

First of all I'd like to thank the two previous respondents for their comments.
And thank you SWAMP for your constructive suggestion which I shall follow.
In addition, could you please suggest tutorials for the reformatting of the hard drive and installing of the OS.

I think a site like hardwarecentral should provide a lot of information for me Thanks again.......... Arnold

Arnold,sorry I could not get back to you sooner..... I don't know off-hand of any tut's...that's kind of a hands on learning thing. If your computer came with the OS aready installed,then you should have one or two disk that came with it called recovery disks.If that is the case,they will do the format and re-installe for you all at once.If not you'll need to create a start-up disk on a floppy,and use DOS prompt commands...really need to have somebody around that knows about it at that point. Understand that a format wipes clean EVERTHING on your HD....anything that you don't have a back up of is gone forever.So plan ahead! It's not really hard at all to do(just takes time),but you'll notice a big change in the way your computer runs,plus you can get the upgrades/patches installed. Good Luck,SWAMP

SWAMP, Thanks for the information and advice