2.6.1 ships the 80 dlls which is fine. However, you will still not be able to run BOS until you install Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack (1)

This was on a brand new install (yes xp). Son's box was hit by boot record virus that created a new sda1 at sector 29, so safest course of action was a wipe/reinstall. (extended and logical partitions were not affected) So this was a fresh SP1a install followed by SP3 + 116 online updates. The Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack (1) redistributable is NOT installed by default regardless of any (Additional Windows Components) installed.

After a fresh BOS Wars 2.6.1 instal, clicking the icon results in no error message but not launch of BOS. Opening a command prompt and navigating to /Program Files/Bos Wars/ and launching boswars.exe from the command line, you get the error:

"The system cannot execute the specified program."

That is it.

Installing the Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack (1) redistributable from:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5582

solves the problem. I don't know which lib in the package in needs specifically, but I can confirm this is the solution...

Bos Wars: 2.6.1
OS: Vista Home Premium

Description: I get an error message saying something about Configuration settings when trying to run on Vista. Error doesn't occur on Windows XP.

Basic idea as summarised by Jim4 is as follows:

"Windows release needs newer runtime libraries."
"ship the 80 dlls but the game uses 90 now".

Jim4 (from the IRC channel) suggested installing the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package. I'll try this out tonight and report back tomorrow on result.