As long as you're compiling native stuff instead of .NET programs, just set the runtime library to 'multithreaded' instead of 'multithreaded dll'
ya'd think wouldnt ya! that doesnt seem to be the case,
I'm already ising multithreaded (i think its /MT off the top of my head)
even halting a dll before ogre_main.dll has had a chance to load (just in case its other dlls bringing in the dependency!), I still see some files open in c:\windows\WinSxS even if these dll's are supplied in the app's directory the problem still exists (its somthing todo with side by side dll's)
all in all using microsoft compilers is a nightmare of dll hell and I wish I'd never taken the "short cut"
If VC express wont install for you, take that as a lucky break and use somthing else instead !! :o)
by making oblivion playable do you mean so it actually runns at a decent frames per second, i have a 3ghz machine with a gt6600 gfx card and it still aint fast enough!