I have never used WS - but as a general principle if you are running something as old as this on win7 then you need to consider:

1] installing and running it in compatability mode for XP
2]installing as administrator
3] running it as administrator

problems can arise with the later windows UAC [user account control] that can block access to certain things

that said, if this is just a 'haphazard' issue, it maybe that the data is not there in the first place? - so that should be checked

at the very least you can right-click and run as administrator and that should fix any registry issues - if it does you should not need to do it again

sorry I can't be of more help....