Runtime Error when starting Lightroom

Question

I'm currently on day 12 or so of my trial with Lightroom. I've spent quite a few hours getting to know LR by retouching and cataloging over 8 years of photos. So far, aside from a few in-program bugs that I found a way to work around, I've been super-happy with it (especially the powerful keywording/metatagging system: amazing!) and have been really seriously coughing up the huge wad of $$ when the trial's done. But....
For no reason, LR started giving me a Runtime Error when I tried to start it. Something along the lines of "This application requested Runtime to terminate it unusually."
So off to Google I went, where I knew I could probably search that error and fix it like I've done with countless other programs. Unfortunately nothing is working.
Here are the facts:
--I'm running a fully patched Vista machine.
--LR worked fine earlier this morning. I had 1.4 and didn't perform any upgrades or maintenance to it (that I know of) when it just gave me the error out of the blue today when I tried to start it.
--I tried holding CTRL when I start it, and it still gives the error.
--I tried deleting a .lock file (which did exist) but it still wouldn't start.
--I tried running the "repair" tool in the install...no good.
--I uninstalled LR, d/led it again, and re-installed it. IT WORKED!....one time. I was able to run it, checked to make sure my cataloging was still intact (it was - phew!) and even deleted a folder I didn't want in it. Then I closed it. I tried re-opening it a few hours later and I got the SAME ERROR!
I sure hope someone can help because I'm at my wit's end.

Answer 1

This is disgusting. I've pounded away for over 4 hours and I finally found a workaround. Here's the original post that had my answer:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c05ac2f
The short of the story: if I put lightroom.exe into Windows XP compatibility mode" it will work. (To do that, for anyone else who comes across this, you just right-click your lightroom icon, click PROPERTIES, and go to the Compatibility tab and check the box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)")
I've loaded it up half a dozen times and it's still working perfectly as far as I can tell. Hopefully it won't hurt anything keeping it in that mode.
I'm glad this happened early enough into my trial that I'll have ample opportunity to see if it repeats itself. I'm not keen on sinking $300 into software that will give me ulcers as I troubleshoot problems like this.