One of the known problems in Emacs is finally solved!

[bkey1]

I believe I have managed to fix the following problem that is listed in 
etc/PROBLEMS.

  * Emacs built on Windows 9x/ME crashes at startup on Windows XP,
  or Emacs built on XP crashes at startup on Windows 9x/ME.

  There appear to be general problems running programs compiled on
  Windows 9x/ME on Windows XP and vice-versa, at least when compilation
  is done with MSVC 6.0.  This affects other programs as well as Emacs.
  The compatibility options in the program properties on Windows XP may
  help in some cases.

I need to spend some time testing my changes this weekend, but if all goes 
well, I will be submitting a patch that fixes this problem by Monday night.

Stay tuned...