Need help with W7

Off-topic but:

Unfortunately that approach more than doubled the space requirement for a Windows install. Not to mention all the DLL duplications (or should I just say multiple versions of the same DLL) that are never needed by the end user.

Just ran the VC++ 2010 SP1 redistributable and updated mine from 10.0.30319 to 10.0.40219. I then re-ran the program to see whether the error msg in post #131 would come up. It didn't. Instead I got this, I got the same message when I ran the VC++ 2010 redist. I then exited the install.Not sure what would cause that error msg to come up. Maybe failed/incomplete install in the past?

Ok, reading from post # 135 its over my head. alot of it is over my head.

Ha. This whole thing sounds like a clusterf*** to me.

I agree. If it wasn't for the Layers in GE, I'd be happy with https://maps.google.com/

For what it may be worth, I found this in Avast.

Au contraire! Sometimes using the previous version is the BEST, and only, solution when that's the one that works! Run with the old version and you might try updating again in a few months (as the problem might be in the current version)

Painfully true! The Winsxs folder on my Win 7 installation is a whopping 8.3GB! (slightly more then half of the Windows folder)

Well, I'm not sure if this helped http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/question-regarding-kb2670838.190372/
, but I've been using the latest version of Google Earth for a couple of days now & no errors at all. My fingers are crossed. Thanks everybody.