Windows XP SP2 and higher, Windows Vista and Windows 2003 Server contains support for a feature called Data Execution Prevention (DEP).
On earlier versions of the software there was some DEP compatibility problems. The effect of this problem was an Access Violation when starting some of the applications.
Another solution is to disable DEP on the machine or for each process that there is a problem starting.
To change the DEP settings go into Control Panel / System / Advanced / Performance / Data Execution Prevention /. Here you can change start or stop DEP functions as well as add programs to exclude from this feature.
More information about DEP can be found at MSDN: A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP)