Have you tried Google Earth support?
http://support.google.com/earth/?hl=en

Thanks, I just now went there with your link. I tried downloading from the google link. That let me open the download but when windows asks permission to let a program make changes to my computer and I click on yes nothing happens. What does that mean? google earth win shows up in my list of programs and when I click on troubleshoot compatibility it still doesn't correct the problem.

Try to run the Google Earth installer as Administrator (right-click: Run as Administrator).

I tried that just now and that didn't work either! When I check the programs by typing google in the search box I get 3 results; google earth win, google and google mail But when I click on control panel/uninstall program there is no listing for any google! I use google mail daily and google is my main search engine so I don't understand . . . any of this!

Only programs that you've installed appear in Control Panel > Programs and Google Mail and the Google search page are accessed via a browser and aren't programs installed on your computer.

If Google Earth hasn't been installed then it won't show up there either.
So you need to try again to run the installer.

Okay, I understand now. Well I tried DL'ing it again and I am still getting "unknown installer error." Ahhhhh!!!

Okay folks I got it!. I went to google help forum and found a link for a direct DL. It said the only problem with that is it doesn't update automatically. Anyhow that worked!