Hi guys, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, quad-core processor, dual ATI's (Xfire disabled) and 4gb ram. No compatibility modes, in any combination will work, neither does running the game as administrators. Searched a lot of forums and can't come up with anything... At this point I would have to guess it's the quad-core.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Just realized I didn't post this as a question, sorry about that.

Update: Fixed the problem! Both games must be run in compatibility mode with Windows XP Service Pack 2, ran as administrator from the .exe's right-click menu, AND Windows 7 Basic theme must be applied! Checking the Run as Administrator and Disable Visual Themes and/or Desktop Composition from the compatibility menu did not work. Hope this helps anyone else running into trouble.

I've got a similar setup, tried everything including the stuff you mentioned to no avail, it still crashes at start up, although behind enemy lines works fine.

Hmmm, came back to the game couple of hours ago and same thing is happening! That's the weirdest thing ever, at the beginning of the day it worked flawlessly... Maybe it's a hardware incompatibility with my Alienware laptop.

I am having the same problem, on an Alienware M11X.

Tried the tricks mentioned above but still it crashes on every start up.

Just trying to play Commandos 2 - no one cares about 3

I believe it's a hardware compatibility problem, probably with the Alienware machines... No response from GOG support either! :(

Alright so I have installed Commandos 2 and played it succesfully on a self-built desktop (MSI P55 Core i5 750, NVIDIA 480 GTX)

Also successful on an HP Elitebook 8540w - Core i7, NVIDIA QUADRO 880MX

I guess this really is a problem is Alienware - I'm considering uninstalling drivers until it is resolved. I really want to take this game on the road with me.

I suppose this is a rather late post, but I did manage to get both Commandos 2 and 3 working on an Alienware.

For Commandos 2, I installed a 64 bit compatibility patch available here: http://www.2shared.com/file/2ORqJwIO/InternationalPatch.html
Then, I set the compatibility to Windows 2000 and ran as an administrator.

For Commandos 3, I ran in Windows Vista and ran as administrator.

Alienware is overpriced garbage for suckers. Or maybe you've just realized that ;)

With regard to the last poster - You're an idiot. Run a benchmark, any one you like. Divide the score by the price of the machine. This gives you a performance per buck measurement. You'll find Alienware, particularly the M11x people are talking about here is incredibly competitive, and better value than any equivalent machine.

With regard to the rest of the posts - having the same troubles here on an M11x R3. I'll keep digging and if I get it figured out will probably stick a video up with the other M11x videos at youtube.com/frooglepete.

Think I have a solution. It's not an Alienware issue, it's an Optimus one.

To get it to work, I did the following....

1. Whitelist gogwrap.exe in the commandos 2 directory (I made a video showing how to do this on my Youtube channel at youtube.com/frooglepete)

2. Whitelist comm2.exe.

Run Commandos 2 and you should see a performance test message pop up. You should also see the game still crash. Don't worry about it - you just ran the performance test which seems to create some data required by the game.

Now, go back into the Nvidia control panel and ...

1. Set gogwrap.exe to always use integrated graphics

2. Set comm2.exe to always use integrated graphics

You should now be able to run the game just fine. This appears to be a problem with the current optimus driver's compatbility with Direct X 8, so you need to jump through some hoops to get the game to even initialize. Once set though, it seems just fine, and since you're running on integrated graphics now you can game on the battery all day long :)


Commandos 3 I am still working on.

The plot thickens. I rebooted, and Commandos 2 stopped working, so I started to do some digging.

Looking through the event logs it appears to be a problem with NTDLL.DLL crashing. This happens when the DLL itself gets corrupted, or when there is a driver conflict. I've hunted around the net and identified that Nvidia's drivers have caused this issue before. Checking my system (this is a new M11x R3, not my older R2), I didn't update the graphics drivers from factory stock.

So, I ran up sfc /scanall first to make sure there are no DLL corruptions on the machine, then I downloaded the latest NVidia drivers and I'm installing them now. We'll see if this works.....


UPDATE: Unfortunately updating Nvidia drivers had no effect. I also started messing with tweaking the Nvidia settings for the game, but with no joy.

I have an m11x R1, Commandos 2 seems to always work for me using "Windows 98/ME" compatibility mode, Disable Visual Themes, Disable Desktop Composition and Run as Admin. The first game also runs fine with no tweaks at all.

Commandos 3 won't run on here no matter what I try. It's not the first old game i've had this trouble with. King's Quest 8 and Dungeon Keeper 2 and some others won't run on here either no matter what I do.

Hi guys!

I recently bought the commandos 2 and 3. Both games dont run at all! They crash during launch and I get the message about comm2.exe has stopped working.
The Commandos - behind enemy lines and beyond the call of duty runs perfectly! So its only the 2 and 3 :)

Ive tried to run both games in different compatibility modes but without luck. Anyone out there with a solution?

My system is Windows 7-64bit
Geforce 680gtx
Intel core i7-3820 CPU

P.S I know that theres alot of people out there with same problem. Hopefully someone has the solution :)

Best regards.

I have this problem with the first Commandos game. I run it in compatability mode for win95 and all that jazz, but the screen just goes black after the first part of the loading screen. The game runs and I get the sound, but it's all black

Hi,
I've just reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch (Content Creator ver)
Commandos 2 crashed at startup
compatibility mode doesn't solve.

I fixed it enabling "Direct Play" in windows functionalities (legacy section)
hope it helps :)