Please Help! Trouble with Ubuntu - installing programs

I also get an error message that says "error command line output" - how can I fix that?

Just wanted to relieve you a litte. Ubuntu is a strong community and I am sure you can get answers to your questions through this forum.

Let me ask a little more about your system so that we can help appropriately.

1) What is the hardware configuration of your machine? (processor, RAM, hard disk etc)
2) Which version of ubuntu have you installed?
3) Which softwares you use the most? Which one of these are not working?

Thank you so much for responding!
Hardware is HP Pavilion 64MB RAM,30 GB ultra DMA hard drive - This is a hand me down machine which had indows ME on it,when I installed Ubuntu ( 8.10)i messed up and wiped out everything except Ubuntu. I have tried reinstalling Windows but it says something about needing BIOS info and that ACPI is off. I have tried installing simple programs (games, docs etc. They save into an archive file but after that they never open. Also have an external hard drive (Metal HDD mobile storage -Platinum Series which has everything from the original hard drive but I can't seem to get it to work - If that would work wouldn't bring back Windows? I have even tried to do a system Recovery and that won't go all the way through. I know I'm missing something probably simple but I am just so frustrated! I had heard very good things about linux, that'sss why I tried it - now I'm regretting it!!
Thanks again for your help!

Please add ram to your pc...

- Minimum system requirements to install Ubuntu 8.04.1
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

I think let's do one thing at a time and let me try to make your linux experience a pleasant one. Here are some ideas and some questions.

1) are you able to log on to ubuntu?
2) are you able to open default softwares such as office, calculator, word etc? They are installed with ubuntu and you don't have to install them separately.
3) Are you able to connect to internet and have firefox?
4) regarding the installing the games, docs, you mentioned that you are trying to save in to archive file. Ubuntu comes with lot of softwares without a need to download. You just need to go to Applications ->Add Remove, search what you want to install, mark it for installation and then apply it. It does all the downloading, installing, setting up without asking anything more.
5) If you still want to install something which is not in that add-remove programs, you can download that and save in to archive. then you have to make it an executable so that you can run. (without that it would give an error). If you have anything such as this, I would like to know the specific name, and the website from where you are trying to download it. May be then someone can help you install those things.