I've just updated to the latest service pack for Visual Studio 8 Express. And although it took my DebugCRT up a notch, it only took me to 8.0.50727.762. I still don't have the same version as you (8.0.50727.4053).
I'm guessing that you must be using the full edition John (i.e. not the free, Express Edition). Is that correct? If so, there's no way that I can make this work by upgrading Visual Studio Express. I'll have to follow one of your other suggestions. Thanks for all your patience.
The .4053 versions were added with the "Security Update for MS Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1" update (KB971090, KB973923, and KB973673). These only fix a minor security issue related to ATL packages. 762 is the previous version which has been around for quite a while. You can build EXEs using 762 and it will load a 4053 DLL just fine, but not the other way. I have no idea if the Express edition is limited to 762, but it seems unlikely, yet sadly possible. -- Bill --