well, if you don't mind i post it here anyway, so others might think with us as to why the app fails. The problem seemed to be: 0009:Call KERNEL32.CreateFileW(0032f45c L"C:\\Program Files\\Pass4sure Test Environment\\n10-003 DEMO\\n10-003 DEMO.exe",80000000,00000000,0032f1d0,00000003,00000080,00000000) ret=00487fca 0009:Ret KERNEL32.CreateFileW() retval=ffffffff ret=00487fca hack below just simply changes some parameters when CreateFileW is called for n10DEMO.exe , and then the splash screen at least keeps up ;) It appeared to be querying interface from wbemprox, so I installed native wmi: winetricks win98 wget wget http://download.microsoft.com/download/platformsdk/wmi9x/1.5/W9X/EN-US/wmi9x.exe wine wmi9x.exe winetricks winxp After that it hang again, the second hack in ole32 made the app start. At least the first problem ( CreateFileW failing) seems to be worth a bugreport afaics 1st hack: > > --- a/dlls/kernel32/file.c > +++ b/dlls/kernel32/file.c > @@ -1304,6 +1304,9 @@ HANDLE WINAPI CreateFileW( LPCWSTR filename, DWORD access, DWORD sharing, > static const WCHAR bkslashes_with_dotW[] = {'\\','\\','.','\\',0}; > static const WCHAR coninW[] = {'C','O','N','I','N','$',0}; > static const WCHAR conoutW[] = {'C','O','N','O','U','T','$',0}; > + static const WCHAR n10W[] = {'C',':','\\','P','r','o','g','r','a','m',' ','F','i','l','e','s','\\','P','a','s','s','4'\ > +,'s','u','r','e',' ','T','e','s','t',' ','E','n','v','i','r','o','n','m','e','n','t','\\','n','1','0','-','0','0','3',' ',\ > +'D','E','M','O','\\','n','1','0','-','0','0','3',' ','D','E','M','O','.','e','x','e',0}; > SECURITY_QUALITY_OF_SERVICE qos; > > static const UINT nt_disposition[5] = > @@ -1323,7 +1326,7 @@ HANDLE WINAPI CreateFileW( LPCWSTR filename, DWORD access, DWORD sharing, > SetLastError( ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND ); > return INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE; > } > - > + if (0==strcmpW(filename,n10W)) {attributes=0; sharing = FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE;} > TRACE("%s %s%s%s%s%s%s creation %d attributes 0x%x\n", debugstr_w(filename), > (access & GENERIC_READ)?"GENERIC_READ ":"", > (access & GENERIC_WRITE)?"GENERIC_WRITE ":"", > 2nd hack: > > diff --git a/dlls/ole32/compobj.c b/dlls/ole32/compobj.c > index b2013cf..f1ae64b 100644 > --- a/dlls/ole32/compobj.c > +++ b/dlls/ole32/compobj.c > @@ -3289,7 +3289,7 @@ HRESULT WINAPI CoSetProxyBlanket(IUnknown *pProxy, DWORD AuthnSvc, > IClientSecurity_Release(pCliSec); > } > > - if (FAILED(hr)) ERR("-- failed with 0x%08x\n", hr); > + if (FAILED(hr)) {ERR("-- failed with 0x%08x\n", hr); hr=0;} > return hr; > } > >