Photoshop Elements 5 organiser - runtime error

[Mervyn]

Please help! I  am using Photoshop v 5, under Windows v 10, which is adequate for my modest personal needs. I am a pensioner, and really don't want to upgrade if I can avoid it. I have not had trouble for all the years I've used v. 5. Suddenly, when I try to load the Organiser, I get an error "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library (Not Responding)"

I am locked out of my years of photos and am absolutely desperate.

[Mervyn]

Please help! I  am using Photoshop v 5, under Windows v 10, which is adequate for my modest personal needs. I am a pensioner, and really don't want to upgrade if I can avoid it. I have not had trouble for all the years I've used v. 5. Suddenly, when I try to load the Organiser, I get an error "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library (Not Responding)"

I am locked out of my years of photos and am absolutely desperate.

[Phinny]

The error seems to point to a problem on the W10 side.  If it were me, I'd start here and seek further guidance at Microsoft Support or in a Windows 10 users group as needed.   Hope this helps.

[Mervyn]

Thank you, Phinny. I followed this line. When I then ran the organiser, it went well till I tried to download from a card reader. The same crash occurred.

[Phinny]

Mervyn, with all due respect, I'm all out of practical suggestions.  I don't think PSE 5 can be made to run error free again, not on Windows 10.  It's just too far out of spec at this point and is, as they say, circling the drain.  Who can say, it may not even launch by the next Windows 10 auto-update.  If those were my photos I'd update PSE as soon as possible.

[MichelBParis]

I have been able to reinstall PSE5 on my Win 10 system, but that was only for testing and I did not keep it installed. The issue with Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library has been often mentioned. Some suggested downloading the missing assets, others said there was a way to run it with legacy features. I have no idea if PSE5 could be reinstalled with the current Wind 10 updates;  I don't think it's worth trying because it might work on my system and not on yours.

Your photos are not in danger, your catalog is.

What I do find important is that PSE5 is the last version of the organizer using an Access database. That means that the later versions (from PSE6) use a different database engine (sqlite) and a catalog conversion from PSE5 and older requires additional steps.

What you can do easily is to use the organizer option to 'write metadata to files'. That means external softwares or newer PSE version will import the tags, captions, ratings inside the media files in their catalog format. Unfortunately you won't recover albums (collections), stacks or version sets.

Also see:

https://helpx.adobe.com/elements-organizer/kb/convert-organizer-catalog-elements-13-64.html