You could use portable version as a test, but after you found out the problem in your system I advise the installer.
Officially Electrum should work fine on Windows 7+, if you have all the updates made, but I didn't use Electrum with older OS so I can't tell.
However, you asked about previous versions. On the download page there's a link to previous releases:
https://download.electrum.org/Just make sure you don't go back to anything before 3.3.4
LE: Maybe this post/thread gives you more ideas:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219481.msg53868124#msg53868124Thanks ill read trough it.
Ive made sure to update my windows updates and run defender before updating electrum
from the previous releases page should i get the
[ ] electrum-4.0.8-setup.exe 2020-12-17 18:23 27M
[TXT] electrum-4.0.8-setup.exe.asc 2020-12-17 18:23 833
or the bottom two without the "setup" in the file name? as the windows installer versions of 4.0.8?