You are correct Mr Cat, and as Bill Sanderson mentioned in the other thread
Engel referenced in Announcements, it is included with most recent Live
OneCare updates from late last week.
However, on a Windows 2000 desktop the msvcr80.dll file didn't exist, so it
was installed into the native assembly cache, also called the WinSxS folder,
under the operating system root directory. The time/date stamps of the
related files and folders confirm installation at the same time as the
Defender Beta 2 Refresh.
Visual C++ Libraries as Shared Side-by-Side Assemblies
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235624.aspx
My guess would be that these may not actually be included within the
Defender MSI itself, but rather installed 'on the fly' from the web, helping
to explain the transient error messages and/or hard errors some are seeing.
In my case, I noticed no error at all, but I'm on broadband with a fairly
slow processor.
Reading the first couple paragraphs of the article above and the 'Note'
explain the differences in operation on Windows 2000 and the fact that the
msvcr80.dll file will be placed in the System32 folder on that OS, as it was
on mine. In fact, all three of the following were installed together, though
only the msvcr80.dll appears to be required by Defender.
Microsoft.VC80.CRT msvcr80.dll C Runtime Library, release DLLs
msvcp80.dll
msvcm80.dll
Bitman