Hello, researching whether LW will operate on my laptop with Windows 7

[Lord of the Rings]

hello jlnewman Probably best to install both LW & Java with each of their installers set to Run as Administrator. LW does run on Windows 7. ie: simply right-click their installers & choose to Run as Administrator.
Both Vista & Windows 7 can be problematic for LW if the above is not done.
I would recommend downloading the 'Offline' Java installer which is usually around 15 MB in size. Offline installer means all the components of the installer are incorporated inside the individual installer file, thus no 'waiting' for components to download as it is installing which can lead to corrupt installations.