Forge Installer cannot find Minecraft Launcher

[Blue_Dolphin_560]

I am trying to install minecraft forge so I can get mods but it will not install because it says it cannot locate the minecraft launcher.  I can find the minecraft.exe file in windows explorer, but when I go to that same location when trying to install forge, the file is not there.  It's like it is hidden.  I've checked the properties of the file and it is not hidden.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated!

[Blue_Dolphin_560]

The location it displays by default is not the location of the original launcher.  I tried to make a copy of the original launcher and place it in the default location, but I cannot create a .minecraft folder.

[Blue_Dolphin_560]

The forge installer is looking for a .minecraft folder, but there is no .minecraft folder on my computer.

[Blue_Dolphin_560]

I searched my entire PC for any folder with "minecraft".  There was no ".minecraft" folder found.