Now that you mentioned it, maybe the problem really is that I put it into too many other folders. I'll try extracting it into a single folder on the desktop and see what happens.
Between the game working and then no longer working there may have happened several windows updates, maybe an entire system reinstalling, though I doubt the game has been updated since then.
And, uh, I don't entirely understand your last question, do you mean a folder named "windows" or what?