It's an old program the source code for which may either not compile with the modern C++ compiler, or be lost. Back in 2000, Microsoft was using Visual Source Safe for managing its source code. I wouldn't be surprised if nobody can remember where the heck the VSS repository with that source code is located.
That leaves the binary monkey-patching as the only reasonable solution. I'm pretty sure Raymond Chen still works at Microsoft...
Binary patching is really only reasonable when the source code is indeed lost. If they had the code but simply needed a compiler that worked, they could have rebuilt it using the same toolchain and build environment it was built with to begin with. Old versions of Windows and MSVC are obviously still around.
That leaves the binary monkey-patching as the only reasonable solution. I'm pretty sure Raymond Chen still works at Microsoft...