I've been running PHP with this:
http://www.php.net/do_download.php?download_file=php405-installer.exe&source_site=www.php.net

Basically, I have a problem with the placement of your php.ini. I would have thought, hoped it would run from the php directory as well as the windows directory. This is standard Windows protocol. A windows *.exe "normally" prioritises looking in the app directory and then in the windows directory for the location of *.ini files.

 Your Msvcrt.dll was installed in my network drive: t:\php\ and works like a charm; so should the php.ini!.

My at-work installation of windows is NT Server based and I don't have permissions to access D:\ntdir where NT was installed. I'm running a http microweb out of a separate directory and hoped to make use of PHP at work. I can't because I can't put the php in the windows directory. It won't work in my network drive: t:\php\php.ini
While my case may or may not be non-standard, your port to windows lack in basic *.ini protocol. It "should" look in the app directory to see if the ini exists there too!