Yes, true I know, but there are two problems...

1) I would like to have a single install package to cover it all and simplify the install for my customers. Yes, potentially I can wrap the whole redist into my install package, but this does also triple the size of the install package for all my customers, most of whom don't need this extra space. I've been told many times that I shouldn't care about distribution size, but when I am doing regular software updates of 10 different customised packages, often to customers working in chinese factories with bad internet connections, package size is important.

2) vcredist_x86.exe actually crashes on my test XP machine and will not install, so this is no help.

So, I have always specifically included the required DLLs with my application in a side-by-side installation.