When starting up the menu to choose which game to play, Red Alert 2 never boots up. A message pops up stating "FATAL String Manager failed to intialized properly."

Does anybody know what the problem is? Do I need a patch or something?

Try right click > Run as Administrator

Just had a quick Google, there are a few potential solutions, mostly related to W7/Vista and UAC.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=red+alert+2FATAL+String+Manager+failed+to+intialized+properly&sugexp=chrome,mod=9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=red+alert+2+FATAL+String+Manager+failed+to+intialized+properly&oq=red+alert+2+FATAL+String+Manager+failed+to+intialized+properly&gs_l=serp.3..0i13j0i8i13i30l3.3557.3557.0.4437.1.1.0.0.0.0.144.144.0j1.1.0.ernk_fspiked_nsqb..0.0...1c.JSwextBbiYo&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=cc8ce0f1d9587aff&biw=1920&bih=955