Installation error while trying to install Photoshop Elements 2021 on new computer (windows 11)

[breel21]

I have a new computer and I am trying to load my photoshop elements 2021. I have tried to install from the disc and from online. I keep getting an error message that MSVCP 120.dll is not found. I contacted Dell support and they worked on my computer for a long time. They could not find anything wrong with the files on my computer. They ultimately said the problem is with the PSE program. I have tried disabling my virus protection and downloading, and it did not help.

[Peru Bob]

Try downloading these:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

Make sure Windows is up to date.

[Greg_S.]

You should first try with the 2013 versions found in the link posted by @Peru Bob.  Install both the X86 and x64 versions.  If that doesn't work, then by all means download all of the others.

[breel21 · Accepted solution]

I have resolved my issues and am sharing my solution here in case someone else encounters the same problem.  I turned to ChatGPT for my answer.

First, I made sure that I had both the x64 and the x86 versions of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable installed. Then I searched my computer and found the missing MSVCP 120.dll file in my common files\adobe\adobe desktop common\DEBox folder. I copied that file and pasted it into both my Window\System32 and Windows\SysWOW64 folders. After rebooting my computer I was able to install most of the PSE 21 software but I ran into additional error messages and missing dll files - these it turned out were due to the fact that I had already downloaded Bridge 2025 from creative cloud. Apparently the 2025 Bridge and the older PSE 2021 do not play well together. I uninstalled Bridge and then the PSE 2021 installed easily.

Hope this helps if someone else has the same issue. Chatgpt makes a really great Adobe Tech guru! 🙂