I've read that this bug is probably solved, but on my laptop game starts and ends with black screen instead of menu (there's some music in the background and pointer - that's all). When alt-tab game crashes.

Using latest version of the game and Asus K50C

Try to install this - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

Yes, but AFAIK config is stored in Windows registry - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Positech Games\Redshirt\

Interesting - music volume, sound volume and sound keys there have 'Invalid DWORD (32 bit) value. What proper values should be?

That's not important (it's the same for me, but everything works, so I don't care), but what values do you have for "Screen Fullscreen" & "Screenmanager Is Fullscreen mode"? I have 0 for both (i set it to windowed in the game).

It started in windowed mode (no crash when alt-tab) but still it renders just black screen and background music only.

Hmm, make sure you have the latest GPU drivers installed.