New install failed - looks like extraction of python dll failed

I am a new user going through panda training. The following steps I did are listed below. I have researched this issue in stackoverflow and on many other sites. Also, I did not see this issue listed when using the search utility on this site. Any other suggestions besides reinstalling my OS?

win7 64-bit PC install of Anaconda3-2021.11-Windows-x86_64.exe

  1. I have uninstalled all python versions
  2. I have uninstalled any and all java/jre versions
  3. I saved my SYSTEM and user PATH variables in a text file. Made both paths empty (used sysdm.cpl and set both to a semi-colon)
  4. Confirm setting of PATH by opening up a dos shell issuin “echo %PATH%”. Path is not set.
  5. I disabled my only anti-virus program → MS Essentials
  6. Made sure to uninstall previous failed attempts and rebooted the computer as directed
  7. Installed as Administrator
  8. In install, I installed for all users
  9. In install, I accepted all default settings
  10. Logging suggests that extracting the python dll failed. It was looking for python39.dll under my user directory (no python dll exists under any Local\Temp directory)
    Logging snippet below:
    Extract: anaconda-2021.11-py39_0.tar.bz2
    Error loading Python DLL ‘C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Temp_MEI48202\python39.dll’.

    Eventually error-ed out saying that it cannot create menus…

I believe its because python version 3.9 no longer supports windows 7. I need a python 3.8 based community version of Anaconda. Unfortunately the archive page has nothing that denotes which version of python its built around. Any suggestions? I may open another topic for which install I should use.