I have been using Cakewalk Express 'forever' to create, transcribe and transpose simple sheet music for piano, organ, voice, choir etc.
Installation from the disc worked fine on previous desktops & laptops until I tried today to install on a 'new' desktop running Windows10.
OK, so I realize this version of Cakewalk will probably not be supported any longer, etc etc but don't want to lose all the Cakewalk Files I have created.
So can anyone help me with install? I have no sound, no startup icon, registry files are messing 'try REGEDIT' - whatever that is.
I am not PC literate and need a gentle person to guide me :)

Music Creator 7 might be all you need to open those files on a Windows 10 machine.
 
To see if it would work, I just installed my ancient Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 on a Windows 10 laptop and it seems to be working fine. I didn't try to auto-run the installer, I set the HS2004 Setup application to run in compatibility mode for WinXP SP2, and also choose "run as administrator"
 
After putting in the disk, I clicked on file explorer, then "This PC", then right clicked on the icon for my CD/DVD drive, then selected "open" from the drop down menu, now I navigated thru the contents of the CD to the HS2004 folder, inside there I right clicked on the setup application and the selected "properties" on the drop down menu, then used the compatibility tab to set the settings mentioned above, after making those two settings I clicked on "apply", then "OK", then double clicked on the installer to run it.
 
After Installing the program I went into it's installed location and made sure that the compatibility settings for the exe file were set the same way as used when running the installer.
 
After a few hours of testing with some old archived sessions it does seem to be running just fine.
 
Hopefully using this method might work for your Cakewalk Express as well.