You get this error message on Visual Studio 2008 while compiling a C++ code?
  You reinstalled Visual Studio and still get this error?
  You did not find any solution in the MSDN?
  You googled for hours and found only misleading hints (like missing links in 
  the Registry and other bullshit)?
  You could not find rc.exe in the CAB files on the VS2008 Install DVD ?
Analyzing what msdev.exe does with SysInternals ProcessMonitor I found that Visual Studio searches the entire world to find rc.exe:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\VC\bin\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\Tools\bin\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\Tools\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\rc.exe C:\Program Files\HTML Help Workshop\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\rc.exe C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\rc.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\rc.exe C:\Windows\SysWow64\rc.exe C:\Windows\System32\rc.exe C:\Windows\rc.exe C:\Windows\System32\wbem\rc.exe C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\rc.exe
If it is not there in none of these folders then it spits out "Error spawning RC.exe".
So my solution was simple:
  I copied rc.exe and rcdll.dll from my VS2005 installation into one of the above 
  folders.
  
  After that the error disappeared and I saw another error: "Error spawning 
  MT.exe"
  
  So I also copied mt.exe into the same folder and it compiled without error!
  It's so easy.
  
  If you don't have another Visual Studio installation where to take these files 
  from, I offer my files here (they are from VS2005 but work also on VS2008):
  
If you don't trust me, upload the file to www.virustotal.com 
  to see that the file is clean.
  
  Elmü