Photoshop 7.0 stopped working with Windows 7, 64-bit

I installed Photoshop 7.0 about 6 months ago with Windows 7, 64-bit operating system. It successfully installed and I have been using it with no issues. Over this weekend, it just stopped working and I get the following error:

"Unable to continue because of a hardware or system error. Sorry, but this error is unrecoverable."

I have uninstalled Photoshop and tried to reinstall it but still have the same issue.

Adobe Photoshop 7 is not compatible with Windows 7 although some people have been able to get it to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Make older programs run in this version of Windows

Your copy may well have stopped working after an update was installed.

Try running it in compatibility mode using the advice in the link above.

Failing that you could install XP Mode under Virtual PC and install Photoshop 7 on the virtual machine.

That error is an almost 100% guarantee that Photoshop's settings are corrupt.

Hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT as you click the Photoshop shortcut and it will start with new default settings.

While this happens occasionally with Photoshop, it's much more common with ImageReady.

Running them with Windows 95 compatibility mode set is the closest you'll get to ensuring it doesn't happen again.