There is no such a thing as Winsock 2.0. Use version 2.2 instead.

Microsoft was probably too much afraid that developpers would request
version 0.2 instead of 2.0 so they switched straight from 1.1 to 2.2.

src/misc/win32_specific.c

@@ -84,19 +84,16 @@ void system_Init( vlc_t *p_this, int *pi_argc, char *ppsz_argv[] )
     mdate();
 
     /* WinSock Library Init. */
-    if( !WSAStartup( MAKEWORD( 2, 0 ), &Data ) )
+    if( !WSAStartup( MAKEWORD( 2, 2 ), &Data ) )
     {
-        /* Confirm that the WinSock DLL supports 2.0.*/
-        if( LOBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 2 || HIBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 0 )
-        {
+        /* Aah, pretty useless check, we should always have Winsock 2.2
+         * since it appeared in Win98. */
+        if( LOBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 2 || HIBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 2 )
             /* We could not find a suitable WinSock DLL. */
             WSACleanup( );
-        }
         else
-        {
             /* Everything went ok. */
             return;
-        }
     }
 
     /* Let's try with WinSock 1.1 */
@@ -104,20 +101,14 @@ void system_Init( vlc_t *p_this, int *pi_argc, char *ppsz_argv[] )
     {
         /* Confirm that the WinSock DLL supports 1.1.*/
         if( LOBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 1 || HIBYTE( Data.wVersion ) != 1 )
-        {
             /* We could not find a suitable WinSock DLL. */
             WSACleanup( );
-        }
         else
-        {
             /* Everything went ok. */
             return;
-        }
     }
 
     fprintf( stderr, "error: can't initialize WinSocks\n" );
-
-    return;
 }
 
 /*****************************************************************************