So an offline machine should not be required to have an old piece of garbage software on it in order to play this game.

Has the "Preservation" removed the need for it to run in Win10?

Just curious before I go and waste my bandwidth. If the "fix" is to download the garbage, then its still broken. Also curious if it was removed as a requirement or added as a default to satisfy the game?

DirectPlay can still be added offline to W10-11. Insert your Windows ISO USB stick, open a command prompt and enter:-

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:DirectPlay /All /Source:D:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

^ where the D in D:\sources\sxs is the drive letter of the Windows ISO, changing it if necessary.

Well...thanks for the reply. But nothing to do with what I needed to know. As I really dont want DP on my machine for 1 game.

"DirectPlay" isn't some online thing, it's a common dependency that includes some DirectX libraries for older pre-DirectX 9 games. And using DirectX7, Icewind Dale 2 is one of those games. If you don't install it, the game may not work. Many other games released in the late 90's / early 2000's need it too (eg, original Age of Empires 1-2, Commandos Enemy Lines, Diablo 2). Even running 100% offline & single player, a lot of games still need DirectX libraries installed.

Yer missing the entire point of what I wrote.

1-Lay off the drugs bud.
2-Stop projecting and gaslighting me to garner attention. I didnt go into your thread and troll you. Im not arguing with you further.
3-Im asking a straight forward set of questions. Either they changed a few files to remove the requirement on Win10+ or is it preinstalled? Simple.

No. He wasnt trying to help. I can read just fine. As a courtesy I thanked him for taking a look at my thread. But he had nothing to say about what I actually wrote.

On my thread topic. Thanks for the links. Ill checkem out.

AB2012 has always tried to help whenever he/she post something by what I see, so Idk what you talking about..
..hope it helps you and others in the future.

dummy-dplayx is not a so well known solution for this 'problem'.
Although one could argue that using random dlls from the internet is a security risk too, so both solutions work.
Its up to the user what he/she wants to try out.

Why not?

Another option could be to run it on Linux/Wine. I don't recall if I tried to run IWD2 specifically on Linux, but at least e.g. the first IWD and I think Baldur's Gate 1-2 ran fine on it, even better than in Windows 7.

Since you mention it, I actually tried this about an hour ago. Seemed to almost work, but just not quite. Used Winetricks and had a few crashes. Got it running to the open video and then to main menu. But it was failing in so many ways to run properly I deleted it. I forgot I had Lutris to try. But its not a game I care about to get upset over. I can wait to try again on a better linux setup in the future. Maybe Nobara or something.

It was actually IWD2 that I tried to get running in Linux back in 2021, and for me the gameplay graphics would be unplayably jerky/lagging, until I learned about this setting:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_correct_way_to_install_gog_windows_games_in_linux/post38

winetricks csmt=off

After that it ran flawlessly for me, I think I finished the whole game on that Linux installation and don't recall bumping into any technical issues ever since. It ran even better/smoother than in Windows 10 with a ddwrapper fix (for me all the Infinity engine RPGs would be quite jerky also in Windows 7 and 10 and needed some kind of extra fix too, like ddwrapper).

Of course I don't know if something has changed in WINE after that and now it is somehow broken again (back in 2021 Infinity RPGs broke that way after certain WINE version, but the fix was that csmt=off thingie).

As for you not wanting to use DirectPlay, is it the same reason as with this guy?

https://www.gog.com/forum/icewind_dale_series/is_there_any_way_to_launch_icewind_dale_2_without_directplay

Ie. you don't have admin rights, which is what is needed to enable DirectPlay?

Ill take a look tomorrow. It was jerky alright. Lag for a solid 10 seconds until I waited long enough to notice it actually did something. I think I put it on a external drive...somewhere xD

As to why I dont want it? Because I know its an annoyance that should not be attached to it. Like microsoft asking whats wrong with 24/7 surveillance. One thing has nothing to do with the other. But I just hate having to jump through hoops to get simple things to function is this point, without concessions.

Just a few minutes ago I tested Master of Orion 3 in lutris. Runs ok. Looks like sh!t. But I tossed it in the bin, when the closing of the game radically upsets the desktop. Icons a mess and font turns microscopic until system is restarted lol

Thats a big NOPE xD

I have been able to play Icewind Dale 2 without DirectPlay for the last ~10 years without any problem.

I think I might have to install it if I wanted to play in multiplayer, but I never really cared about that and the single player mode works fine without it.

(same for Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2 and Diablo 2 that have been listed in this thread too)