missing /VC/redist folder

yeah, this might be a stupid question, but i am just an amateur programmer, and i wrote a small console app which i compiled and runs seamlessly on my computer. When i try to give it to my friends, they get errors that correspond to a missing manifest and dlls for VC80.CRT etc etc. The redist.txt in the root directory says there should be a redist folder where i can get the correct files, but i have no VC/redist folder, i've poked around in /windows/winsxs, and found the right files, but the wrong version so that was a no go...i basically cant find the files anywhere on my comp which makes me confused as to how my console app runs at all even on my system. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

it may help for me to give a bit of extra info:
the error that i'm getting from the event log is:

Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.VC80.CRT. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

and the embeded manifest from my app is:

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC80.CRT" version="8.0.50608.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity>
    </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

the filename of my VC80.CRT manifest is:

x86_Microsoft.VC80.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.42_x-ww_0de06acd.manifest

i find it interesting that the version numbers dont match, but i know that my app is using this, because if i remove it from my /windows/winsxs directory, i get that error. I tried sending the manifest and corresponding dlls to a friend to try placing in their winsxs directory, but it did not resolve the issue. Thanks again.

oh and one other thing, (sorry for all the edits)
this is what my redist.txt reads

"For your convenience, we have provided the following folders for use when redistributing VC++ runtime files. Subject to the license terms for the software, you may redistribute the folder (unmodified) in the application local folder as a sub-folder with no change to the folder name. You may also redistribute all the files (*.dll and *.manifest) within a folder, listed below the folder for your convenience, as an entire set.

...

\VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC80.CRT\
msvcm80.dll
msvcp80.dll
msvcr80.dll
Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest"

but of course i dont have a redist directory in my installation...help!

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