I asked aliaspider to test 1.0.0.3 beta in XP and he said it worked out-of-the-box, can you give that a try?
Hello. I am a new Windows XP user and ran into the same problems. I will describe them here with my solutions:
1) First downloaded 1.0.0.2 and got an error on startup. The mentioned command is apparently only for Vista and up. ERROR 1: “The procedure entry point InitializeConditionVariable could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll.” SOLUTION: Used the 1.0.0.3 beta
2) RetroArch now starts with an error in the command window and a black screen with no visible menu. ERROR 2: “RetroArch [ERROR] :: dylib_load :: Failed to load library, error code: 0x7e” SOLUTION: Since I could not see the menu I edited video_driver in retroarch.cfg. Changing the value from gl to d3d resulted in an instant crash, but sdl2 worked perfectly. The error remains though.
I am now able to navigate the menus and set all the necessary paths. I am using the latest nightly cores (dec 31th). Offline play works like a charm.
3) However, I am unable to start netplay. I set Netplay Enable to ON, entered Port (+forwarded). Client and Spectator are OFF. ERROR 3: “Failed to initialize netplay.” SOLUTION: I found the corresponding thread on the forum… reading now.
Just wanted to say thanks to all the developers for working on RetroArch. I only recently discovered it and the concept of using cores is an excellent idea. I cannot judge netplay yet, but it is a very welcome feature.
Oh and Happy New Year! 
Hello everyone i just joined this forums just for getting help (i can’t create a new topic) So my problem is i downloaded retroarch 1.7.3 and when i click on it it says “retro arch has stopped working” so i googled for fixes i founded that open retroarch.cfg and change video_driver = “gdi” that works (i tried others too like xmb, rgui, gl, etc but same stopped working) but the menu looks really ugly any help in that?
Oh and yes my OS is Win7 32bit and i have Intel Integrated GPU 82945G (256MB)
Thanks to anyone who helps
Looks like the only step up you could do with that GPU is to set your video_driver to “d3d9” and then change the menu_driver to “rgui”. That menu is still considered “ugly” by most, but it should be fully functional, and you’ll be able to use Cg shaders, hardware-accelerated fullscreen, etc. The only thing you won’t be able to do is use GL hardware-rendered cores like the N64 cores.
d3d9 users (like myself) need to enter d3d9 as the driver. d3d is not a valid option.
whoops, you’re right. Edited.