Installing patch problems

[Powermad]

I have recently started playing this game. I played for a while and then found out there was a patch and update available. The game played very well before patching, no issues, ran well, looked pretty good. Then I downloaded the patch and associated file from Graviteam site. I run the exe, it says install successful, click finish, and then a pop up updater is supposed to appear. I have tried several times, when I finish the patch install, no update box appears. I click finish install, nothing happens, that's it. Now the game will not run. I have downloaded both files several times, they don't appear corrupted. I am running Vista 64 bit O/S, but the unpatched game worked very well. I have tried running the updater from within the game files, a black DOS type box quickly flashes. I even tried running it from a DOS command prompt. Nothing seems to work, no updater pop up ever appears. Ran as admin, redownloaded game and tried to patch a fresh install, nothing seems to work. I'm very disappointed as I was looking forward to playing the game properly patched. Any help would be appreciated.

[Powermad]

Update. I downloaded and installed a fresh copy and then ran the update.cmd from the game files, which opened the updater dialog box. I kept the dialog box open, and then ran the gte2_core_update_eng_v581.exe. The install was successful, the updater was open, but when I directed it to mtc80_sabow_patch_aug12_eng_beta3.gt2extension and then clicked open, it would only generate a text file called last_bug.txt, and the text consisted of two lines of three question marks. I was able to close and open the updater, but kept getting the last_bug.txt


Then I re-ran the gte2_core_update_eng_v581.exe, and now update.cmd just flashes a black box really fast and nothing else happens, the updater doesn't open, so I'm back where I started.
I am an IT technician by trade, so I have a lot of experience with troublesome software issues, and I also have a lot of experience fixing games, but I've never seen anything like this. Please help, I really like the game and I want it to run.
I am not running the game in program files, as that can generate known issues with my O/S. Also I have User Account Controls turned off, as that is also a known issue with Vista. I don't know what else to try at this point. I really like the game, in fact I've been waiting years for a game like this. If anyone has a patched copy I can download I am willing to negotiate. 

[Krabb]

http://gravitac.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Installing_updates_and_modifications#Troubleshooting
This is for GTOS, but SABOW is almost the same. I think the missing VC redist is the problem.

[Powermad]

Fixed, thank you. You were right, missing redist was messing it up. Installed redist, ran files, game works perfectly. Thank you for your help with this.