When IDA Pro 5.0 fails to start

In the past, I've tried to use the IDA disassembler (the freeware version 5.0) on Windows 8, but it always threw some error on starting, and wouldn't let me do anything after that. The problem didn't seem to be helped by compatibility modes on the main program A couple days ago, I managed to get it working correctly. The trick was to run the setup program in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3. Once setup completed, I didn't have to manually apply any settings to anything else, and it's been working ever since.