Ray

This link provided the insight to edit the registry: http://social.techne...b3-606836dcfabb

I have egg on my face for not remembering the KEY factor that caused the problem. So, I solved my own problem and may as well fess up to my oversight. When I tried to run sfc /scannow I got an error saying it couldn't start the service. When I went to turn the service on in the Windows Module---it showed as already in the correct "Manual" setting, but when I would hit start I would get an "Error 1450: Not enough system resources....." At some point in all this, I don't quite recall when, having tried and retried, I realized that I should check to make sure Netframework was installed and when I went to check what Windows 7 components were installed or not I got a "blank box". Something more serious than paint.net was going on here, but what? I poked around the MS Knowledge Base and other googled ideas based on the Error 1450 and ouila'. I forgot about having just done a fresh install of ArcGIS 9.3 over the weekend. A forum tipster pointed out that the this bloated my registry and the Windows 7 registry is preset with a very low threshold. The solution was simple....a registry edit to make the size unlimited, reboot, and I could now view my Windows 7 updates and installed components and I could run sfc /scannow which showed now problems....so I attempted to install Paint.net again and after a few seconds of heistation at just about the same point on the progress bar, ouila' it installed and works perfectly. My oversight for forgetting about the newly installed ArcGIS, it's installation went fine and it was working fine over the weekend so I never gave it a second thought that IT was the culprit. Thank you for your reply and concern. Happy to avoid a total reinstall of Windows 7

Was using 3.5.5 successfully on a Windows XP SP3 PC No issues on install or use. Got new Windows 7 PC, no atypical settings or other installation, MS Office 2007, Adobe Acrobat and the typical print drivers etc, Trend Mico AV. Turned off Trend Micro prior to install. Install hangs repeatedly at about 80% of progress bar and leaves behind only an msi file in the stage subfolder of the paint.net folder of the programs directory file size 20,185 KB. No vestigages of it in Start Menu nor via list in Windows Install Cleanup. Only way to stop the hung install is to either wait about 30 minutes or so each time or a control-alt-del---either way it leaves behind a new msi file of exact same size each time. Have deleted all there and retried numerous times. Have messed with various "solutions" found in other parts of the forum to the tune of about 4 hours now. Unable to use Windows restore point either immediately before the install attempts are all the way back a week ago for whatever reason, simply says its unable to do so. Was able to install another photo reader freeware program successfully after the fact, suggesting that Windows Installer is not corrupt? Forgive me if I have overlooked the obvious in the forum. Any new suggestions? Thank you.