How to install Photoshop 5.0LE on Windows7 64bit?

Question

Greetings, and new here.  Did a search but didn't come up with anything helpful, just a lot of very technical stuff.  I am very simply trying to use an old version of Photoshop 5.0LE that I got with a camera I bought on a new PC with Windows7 Pro 64bit.  I use Photoshop sparingly, but do on occasion and do not wish to purchase anything more elegant as I have no need and not much money.  I appreciate any help you might give.  I have heard there is a process but haven't been able to get it to even open the .exe file to try to install it.  I get a message something like "This version of Photoshop does not work with Windows7," (kinda makes me wonder why I even upgraded the OS since the XP Pro I had on my old machine worked very well with all my programs. Please help. Thanks. Highdesertdweller

Answer 1

UAC is Windows User Account Control, which is a big reason why older software might end up being incompatible with the latest OS. 
Basically, in the "bad old" days, every application acted like it owned your entire computer, and modified anything and everything it saw fit.  Nowadays, by contrast, applications are supposed to install in certain places, then only make modifications and store data in user-specific places.
UAC is the Windows feature that asks you, during installs, whether you really want to allow an installer to make changes to the system, and it causes the redirection of some things that used to be at the system level to be stored in other, user-specific places.  It also causes your applications to be run without privileges, even though you may have added yourself as an Administrator.
UAC's folder redirection seems akin to "magic" and I've always felt it was a real hack job.
But in general UAC does protect people who don't really understand how everything works in Windows from a lot of malware, and - though Microsoft provides the ability to adjust the settings to facilitate greater compatibility with ancient apps - advising people to disable it has to be given with a disclaimer:
You should search for Windows User Account Control or just Windows UAC in Windows Help and online to learn what it does for you before choosing to disable it.
If you DO end up wanting to try disabling it to see if Adobe's old version will install, just click Start, type UAC in the search box, and click on Change User Account Control Settings when it comes up.  You'll need to reboot after the change.
Edit:  This seems out of order because it is; I had neglected to hit the Submit button.
-Noel