Today, when trying to execute a test program on Vista, I got the above error. I have copied only executable and forgot to copy manifest file to the destination folder. So, I was getting the above error, when I tried to execute the executable. But, after copying manifest file also, this error did not go away. I have searched over the net for any clues, in many forums this issue is discussed, but all posts are talking about some manifest problem in Vista. But, somewhere I read that Vista caches the meta data. So, I touched the executable using touch command to change the last modified time[I use cygwin]. After that OS is able to recognize manifest file associated with executable and started working fine.

Recently, I saw this video on Google video site. This advertisement is very good. But I dont know whether it is official or not. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1750823427949463618&time=35000