I installed the game without changing any options whatsoever and the game crashed close to the end of the intro sequence. I tried some of the other solutions posted in the forums here but the game ended up crashing numerous times and even worse at points due to a sound loop. I fixed the problem by doing the following.

1. Right click on the Gorky 17 shortcut in the Start Menu
2. Select Open file location
3. Right click on the gorky17.exe file in the installation directory.
4. Select Properties
5. Click on the Compatibility tab.
6. Deselect Run this program in compatibility mode for: (Windows 95 will be selected by default)
7. Deselect Disable visual themes
8. Deselect Run this program as an administrator
9. Click Apply
10. Click OK

When launching the game I selected Primary Display Driver/Direct3D HAL
Specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
XFX Radeon HD 5750
4GB Corsair Memory
Core i7 860 Processor
Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio Sound card

I must point out though that I have not played the game enough to reach another cut scene. I ran the game without skipping anything since the beginning perfectly fine and played one random battle successfully. Hopefully I don't encounter any problems later on in the game. I have never heard of this game until this weekend sale and it looks really cool so i look forward to enjoying it this weekend. I hope this solution helps others :)

I was excited to see this since I can't run the game past the opening cutscene. But for some reason when I try to change those properties the change doesn't take. I hit apply and then OK and when I close that and look at the properties again they are right back to the old ones.

I checked and this doesn't happen with other games, just this one. Boo!

Is your gorky17.exe file set to read only? Look to the bottom of the General tab and deselect Read-only next to Attributes if that's the case.

Nope, it's not set to read only. I checked before posting. :)

Win7 64,
AMD II x250,
Gigabyte Mainboard,
GTX260

- no compatibility at all,
- but as admin,
- with software rendering

works perfect for me

I tried OPs suggestions and now the game won't launch at all

I tried everything to get this working, and it only happened once I changed the name of the AVI folder to _AVI. Now it won't play movies and cutscenes, but it boots up.

This solution works, thank you! I had to set compatibility to Windows 98 / ME also. It works on Windows Vista.

Set it to software mode and it should work.

This "solution" did NOT work for me, and caused a complete PC crash. The intro seemed fine, but as soon as the game started, I had a complete lockup with the repeating sound and no response to any input. I had to physically shut down my PC (hold down the power button).

I'd given up on this game long ago, but thought this "new" solution might be good. I was wrong.

I have problem, i try all option but the game not work. Always write this "Directx not detected. Run install program." someone know what is this? :S

I use Win 7 ultimate 64 bit

all of you having problems

the main issue is with windows DEP
exclude the exe from DEP and it will run fine.
Remember to use win 95 compat
it will run even using 3d rendering

And how would you go about doing that on a 64bit system, where DEP is enabled implicitly?
(I'm actually curious, not trying to be snide.)

addthe exe game to exceptions , it will not run it for that exe in memory