Ok here is the deal. I installed the game fine. I didn't hit any hitches in the installation and the auto patcher downloaded everything ok, but I never got a prompt asking me for activation. I tried running the game after I installed but whenever I click "Play" on the autoplay menu nothing happens and when I go and click on the Bioshock.exe I get this error message:

C:\Program Files\2K Games\Bioshock\Builds\Release\Bioshock.exe

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.

I've tried a complete uninstall/reinstall about 3 times now but always get the same results. I've killed all the program that might interfere with installation and even tried installing it in safe mode with networking once, but no luck. I'm not getting any error message when I install which leads me to believe that the problem isn't that so I'm wondering if I'm missing a step or screwing up somewhere.

Here are my system specs
OS: Vista Home Premium 32-bit
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ 3.02GHz
RAM: 2 gigs
Video: 2 NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GTS 256 MB RAM
Sound: Realtek AC '97 Audio