I know this kind of error has been circulating since 2007, and I've been looking for a few days. In 7 years, nobody that I've found has a fix. And if there is no fix, then how are people still making mods today? What do a lot of you use to make mods if you can't use ZeroEditor? Sorry for perhaps beating a dead horse, but I'd really like to get started modding and I'm at a brick wall as of now.

What I (and ANDEWEGET) found to work was to move my entire BF2_ModTools folder into a folder called SWBF2_ModTools, so the directory would be C:\SWBF2_ModTools\BF2_ModTools. This worked without changing compatibility or administrator rights. Sometimes it gives me the runtime error the first time I launch it, but I try again right after and it launches. Nothing else I tried worked. This is with a windows 8 machine too.

EDIT: also if you didn't know, Zeroeditor is for editing the physical maps themselves. you can still make side mods and stuff without it, just no maps.

To make a side mod that replaces, changes, reskinns models/ units:
http://www.gametoast.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12729

Or add a new era to existing maps: http://www.gametoast.com/viewtopic.php? ... 96#p287596

And in FAQ thread there are a lot of tutorials how to make custom units.

Thanks for the help guys! I've really wanted to change some of the maps and add different clone sides to them, so this is exactly what I was looking for