Programs crash in one of the Windows 7 Accounts

Question

First of all, if you are reading this, I’m sorry it’s so long winded. But the issue is complex and I wanted to provide enough details to allow the best of solutions.
I have two accounts in my Windows 7 Home Premium equipped Satellite L505D laptop. They are Administrator and Owner. I run in the Owner account. I have experienced several issues that have been blamed on problems with the Owner account.
The worst issue is that the PC freezes up if I don’t turn on Silent mode in Norton Internet Suite 2010. If it’s not in Silent mode, the computer freezes up every time. Believing it to be a Norton issue, I spent literally more than 30 hours with Norton techs until the issue was escalated to a senior tech. After several more conversations and trials and errors, he suggested that I switch to Administrator mode and see if the machine freezes with Silent mode turned off. It didn’t freeze up at all. Therefore, it’s Norton’s opinion that there is an issue with "permissions" in the Owner account.
A similar problem is that three or four other programs freeze up. They don’t cause the PC to stop working—only the program stops working. Of them, two are programs that are not on the Windows 7 compatibility list. Knowing they are not on the compatibility list, I installed them anyway and they work with no problem other than they sometimes freeze up. The other program that stops working is MS Outlook 2003, which is on the compatibility list, but it sometimes stops working, too.
A final problem is that in the Owner account, I sometimes can not access files on my desktop PC via my LAN using Windows Explorer. I can always access the files from the Administrator account. In the Owner account, I’m unable to access the files about 1/3 of the time. But if they are accessible, they remain assessable until I turn off one or both of the PCs. When I reboot, it’s always a question whether I can access the files. However, even though I may not be able to view the files in Explorer, I have access to the files from within programs as long as it’s a recently opened file. For example, if I recently worked on a document in Microsoft Word on my laptop and the file is on the desktop PC, I can open the file from the laptop even though I can’t see the file with Windows Explorer. That is true of any program and any file as long as the file is listed in the recent files list of the program. If it’s not on the list and Explorer isn’t working, then I don’t have access to the file.
I have had four or five conversations with Toshiba support techs since Norton gave me their opinion. Three said that I need to so a System Recovery. Two of the calls were today and the first one said that I could delete the Owner account and set up a new account. This would be a lot less time consuming than doing a complete recovery and I was hopeful it would resolve the issue. He was going to walk me through the procedure and we were disconnected. When I called back, the different rep discouraged me against replacing the Owner account. He suggested using a Restore Point. If that didn’t work, follow it with a System Repair. If that didn’t work, then the next step is full System Recovery. I checked the restore points and I have nothing newer than August and the problem dates back several months.
So here are my questions: 1. Should I expect that replacing the current Owner account with a new Owner account will resolve the issue? 2. Could the issue be caused by the installation of programs that are not on the Win 7 compatibility list? 3. If the older programs do cause an operating system instability issue could that by resolved by an upgrade from Windows 7 Premium to Windows 7 Professional, which would allow me to run Windows XP in virtual machine mode?
I would appreciate your input.
Thank you.
Dan
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Answer 1

1. So you have problems in both the Owners and the newly minted Danny account….
Jerry, yes the problem is with the Owner’s acct and has been all along. And it’s in the new account, Danny, which I created at your suggestion. As to whether they were created as "Standard" user accounts, I have to confess that I have no idea. You see, I have never had an appreciation for "Accounts" and, therefore, have never learned about their significance. So when I bought my Toshiba, I didn’t create any account. Although I have since learned that it came with two accounts, all I did was turn it on and start loading programs. I only learned about the Administrator account being separate from the Owner account in my many conversations with Norton. I have used the Owner account all along not by any design on my part. It was because it booted up in the Owner account.
2. Worth tearing Norton out by its roots…
I’ve been anti-Symantec for years. I just haven’t found Internet Security Suite that is rated as highly overall. I’ve been thinking about removing it to see if this problem would go away. I didn’t  because the senior tech support person convinced me it is a Windows "Permissions" issue. His viewpoint was more plausible because of the occasional freeze up of other programs (but the PC itself doesn't freeze up with them).
3. There are dozens of Satellite L505Ds…
Oops…I thought you were just asking for confirmation of the L505D nomenclature. The complete info is L505D-S5983, part number PSLV6U-00J001.
4. Bingo. You got that right. I've hung around CompuServe since 1980…
I was a CompuServe user long before their unfortunate acquisition by AOL. I had a couple of IDs over the years. I don’t remember the long term one. My current ID is DannySall. I logged into the WUGNET forum and found one of my postings from last May to which you replied. Outlook 2003 wouldn’t retain its password. I sent a reply to you on July 25 to say that I resolved the issue by deleting an account.
5. Because of your Microsoft knowledge and connection, I'd like to ask you about something else. I have a few programs that are not on the Windows 7 compatibility list. I figured I had nothing to lose and tried installing them anyway. I was able to install all but one of them. They run with no problem. My question is this: Is it possible that installing non-compatible programs can damage the operating system and cause the problems I have?
Thank you for all your time and suggestions.
Dan