Courtesy of Jose Ibarra:
Assuming you are running XP Service Pack 3 and assuming XP is installed on your C drive, locate the msvcrt.dll file in this folder:
c:\windows\system32
Right click it, Properties, Version, and check the Company and File Version and see if it says this:
Microsoft Corporation
7.0.2600.5512
(xpsp.080413-2111)
If it does not say that for the Company and File version, that means that the file has been overwritten by some third party application you installed (probably a game) that may have added a startup item to your configuration.
Either XP doesn't like the third party msvcrt.dll file or the third party program doesn't like the XP msvcrt.dll file. You must figure out which it is.
If you then rename the msvcrt.dll file to something you can remember (like msvcrt.bak) so the file becomes "missing", if your Windows File Protection is working properly, the missing file will be quickly and silently replaced by the backup copy from the dllcache folder.
You will see an event like this in the Event Viewer System log:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Windows File Protection
Event Category: None
Event ID: 64002
Description:
File replacement was attempted on the protected system file c:\windows\system32\msvcrt.dll. This file was restored to the original version to maintain system stability. The file version of the system file is 7.0.2600.5512.
If you are still browsing the c:\windows\system32 folder, Press F5 to refresh your display and check the version of the "new" msvcrt.dll file again and tell us what it says.
If it looks good, reboot and see how things look.
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It installed OK, but when I tried to run it, a warning box opened stating something about installation failed, try re-installing. I did that with no luck. Because I'm using Windows XP Pro SP 3, I may try an older version.
from here
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what is the version you are running??
from the link with the quote you might try an older version of devede