Ack, GemRB seems like a rather convoluted workaround at this point too, or at least the instructions make it sound so. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be just a matter of "install this Windows program, run it and point it to your original game data files" like with e.g. ScummVM.

Either you have to edit config files to correct paths etc. (which is a bit hard for a newbie with Notepad, as the config text files don't have the ^M line feeds that Windows users need...), or use an external launcher and make sure you have Python 2 and PyGTK installed... Maybe I'll look into it more later.

I THOUGHT I have Wine 1.4 installed but it was 1.2. Yesterday I failed in installing 1.4 (or 1.5 beta). Will try today again.

I am very curious if skipping 'create game' could solve OP's problem. The problem is that simple paste save game into SAVE folder doesn't "unlock" Load game button on main screen. Will try to find out.

I don't know how you have installed it, but doesn't just running e.g. sudo apt-get update/upgrade update it to the latest? Or do you still get only 1.2 then?

Well, I never tried the Windows version...
If you've got ubuntu anyway, why not try it there?

Under Linux, I just copied the default config, changed them for the game (BG1, BG2, IWD, IWD2), i.e. pointing to the game data and setting resolution, and then I ran "gemrb -c /path/to/config/" to start the game.
GemRB runs the games really great, so it's worth it. Some features are still missing (multiplayer!), but it's actively developed, so it's just a matter of time.

Hope it works for you!

Tried it yesterday - didn't work. but IIRC I used get-update not get-upgrade. I got message that packet doesn't exists (or sth like this)
will experiment later on

Since the OP is trying to run IWD in Windows (Vista), I was kinda trying to find another workaround that doesn't involve installing Linux (even as a virtual machine). If the OP goes the virtual Linux machine route, then the Wine approach should work pretty ok too, albeit it has some complications too (like the 800x600 graphics not scaling automatically to full screen in VMWare Player).

But it may be it isn't really that hard, and just a few steps are needed. The full instructions were just quite convoluted, linking to several alternative Win32 binaries, using many pages apparently on how to compile it yourself from the source, asking to make sure you have Python this and GTK that installed on your machine (I don't know if all Windows machines have these by default, or if they need to be installed separately... I've only ever used Python on Linux side) etc. I might still try it myself, I'm interested to see how the Infinity engine games run through it. Kinda like ScummVM for many games, I presume.

As said, one basic hurdle on the Windows side is the lack of line feeds on the config files, which makes editing them in Windows a bit problematic (e.g. if you decide to use WordPad in order to make them readable, then you accidentally save them in "Windows/DOS format", possibly making the config files broken...) It appears to me the OP needs quite detailed and foolproof granny instructions.

Either way, it was great you mentioned GemRB, at least I was oblivious to its existence, and it is certainly one possible workaround.

You mean VMWare (Windows version), in which you have created an Ubuntu 12.04.1 virtual machine, and then installed Wine 1.4 in Ubuntu, somehow manages to screw up your system? Whoa. Is it just the VMWare, or that exact combination?

No, no - not screw up (damage). Just my PC is not powerful enough to run Ubuntu 12.04.1 installed on windows version of VMWare. Unity responds very slow - basically if I try to click say Libre Office app and software center - I must wait 10 secs for appropriate windows to pop up.
In terms of performance VirtualBox is much better than VMW for my hardware.

Ah ok. I don't know the exact hardware requirements, but at least on T400 laptop (Win7/64bit, 4GB RAM, Intel Core2 Duo CPU P8600 2,4GHz (two cores), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series, yadda yadda...) it seems to work ok. Not a fast computer by any means, even have to reduce the details a bit for the first Portal game to reach playable framerates.

Note: In VMWare player I changed the "hardware" settings a bit, allocating 2 GB of RAM for the virtual Ubuntu machine, instead of the default 1 GB. I don't know if that could affect the performance much, either way.

So, just to close this thread. I've managed to install and play IWD on Wine via real hardware. Just as you I had some sound lags in movies but everything else looked fine to me.

I was also able (finally!) to run IWD on VirtualBox (Ubuntu 10.10 + Wine 1.4) Problems I described in my posts were apparently connected with sound. After a bit of experimenting I found out that if I change ALSA to PulseAudio (gstreamer-properties) and pick ICH AC97 sound card - everything runs very well. Just for kicks I even turned on OpenGL – and it worked even better (but after I turned some additional effects – game start to lag)

So to sum up our experiments: it looks like OP has a very good chance of running IWD via Wine installed on Linux run by virtual computer (VMWare or VirtualBox) that is installed on his Vista 64bit. Because of multiple emulation layers – the more powerful PC - the better.

Still nothing ? :(

I'm way too frustrated and stupid to download and install and trouble shoot more things. I know it's probably easy for everyone explaining this but I just don't have the tech gene and I get confused way too easily.

I give up, this website can keep it's free money, I don't even care anymore. Bye everyone.

I can understand how you feel, but don't give up just yet. There's still hope :)