I'm using Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit.

After clicking the desktop icon, I see the game's loading icon for a couple seconds, and then a "YesterdayOrigins.exe has stopped working" message.

Microids' support website for this game has a page for people with a somewhat similar problem, a "Black screen at launch". They suggest downloading Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 from Microsoft. This wouldn't install, because I already have a newer version of the same program.

Did you ever find a solution? I do have the exact same issue as you describe, however under Win11 24H2.
Also the installer throws the same error.
However I did manage to find a version of the installer that did allow me to reinstall it by choosing to "repair" the current installation by using the installer from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#visual-studio-2015-2017-2019-and-2022

However, the problem of endless circle of loading animation at beginning of Yesterday Origins, remains.

Thanks in advance!

I've found the solution! For me it was Comodo Internet Security 2025 Premium falsely reporting the 2 files "MAU.DLL" and "dbdata.exe" from the game's subfolder "YesterdayOrigins_Data\Plugins" as malware.

When I restored them from Quarantine and added them to the excluded files list, the game ran flawlessly!