I also tried the zipped version. The same problem appears. I installed in C:/Program Files as well as in D:\Blender Foundation\blender. The console was started with Admin rights.

If it was a 32bit Blender, this is what I downloaded when I selected the 64 bit version. The installer that I used is called blender-2.72-windows64.ex; the zip blender-2.72-windows64.zip.
The nVidia drivers are up to date. I restarted the computer and I still get the same error.

Eeeeeh, wondering why you get Build: 2014-10-03 16:49:17 Windows:32bit Release from the console them??? Martijn?

Anyway, do you also have your OS up to date (with all MS updates installed)?

I do have my Windows 7 up to date. Any other things I can check?

I tried installing 2.71 but the installer crashes at: Execute: "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe" -r. The zip file also crashes when I try to run it after it prints in the console "Switching to fully guarded memory allocator."

I also tried the latest 2.72 build. Same thing happens

D:\Blender Foundation\blender-2.72-ee5936c-win64>blender.exe -d
Switching to fully guarded memory allocator.
Blender 2.72 (sub 1)
Build: 2014-10-12 04:47:15 Windows:64bit Release
argv[0] = blender-app.exe
argv[1] = -d
read file

Version 267 sub 1 date 1970-01-01 00:00 hash

ordered
OBCube
OBLamp
OBCamera
found bundled python: D:\Blender Foundation\blender-2.72-ee5936c-win64\2.72\python

Version blender-2.70a-windows64.zip works for me with default settings.

Hmmmm… last point to check, did you install the VC2013 runtime, as said on win download page?

Do you have sp1 installed? Is your windows fully updated?

Hi again. I had some problems with the Windows Update service which was failing to run and I didn't notice it until now. There were a couple of updates that needed installing. I can confirm that Blender 2.72 win64 works on my machine. Sorry for all of the trouble.