Ok so I tried installing and running Civ 4 today didn't work
Wont load.

first i installed the game and it gave the dx9 error. Download the auto-exe and ran it but still didn't work. than i tried 1.74 that didn't work. then i did the following:
reinstalled
installed 1.61
installed 1.74
still doesn't work any clues here is the error log

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Civilization4.exe
Application Version: 1.7.4.0
Application Timestamp: 464bc30c
Fault Module Name: ~df394b.tmp
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4317094a
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00077c9c
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd76
Additional Information 2: 799e3fad8d70c9282bcb1890cb2c076a
Additional Information 3: 9d6f
Additional Information 4: 98037061292b69897be008f584aec214

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Thanks.

It's safedisc. It has nothing to do with Vista.