Works fine on mine (original CD version with Win7x64). You just need to set Graphics Hardware Acceleration off.

Mind you, finding that setting is a bit tricky on a completely black screen...

Yup, but every time the game starts the setting is being reset. Many other users have the same problem.

Also, I can still see the fonts in front of the black background. ;)

DK2 looks horrible with hardware acceleration off on ATI cards (might be the same for NVIDIA cards). It actually works with hardware acceleration on some NVIDIA cards.

It also randomly crashes, in my experience, without hardware acceleration enabled.

Maybe GoG could make DK2 work without too much trouble.

If I'm not mistaken, I remember that to get DK2 to stick on Software Acceleration, you need to deactivate it in the menu (usually, you can still see the text itself, even if the rest turns black), then, without quitting the game, launch a single player campaign. Then save, exit and quit the game. This way, DK2 should keep your full settings. Then it's true than by default, software is limited, but add -softwarefilter -32biteverything to the shortcut target and it should look very close to hardware acceleration (maybe with strange lines around textures, try without one of the command lines above). Still, the game may crash. Maybe lowering resolution or playing with compatibility parameters would help.

I've not played much on DK2, but I can definitly say that it's a bit slower and less impressive atmosphere-wise (the music is less striking, and sfx are a tad lower) - it does add some very interesting options and a more complete interface though, and skirmish as a native option. And silly cutscenes!

DK2 works great, pretty much out of the box on my Win7 32bit system.

Hmm... You haven't installed on Vista or Win7 into Program Files, have you? Sounds like it can't save the changes to the config file. I had no such problem...

EDIT: I think Darucas has the answer, you need to start a game immediately after changing the setting.

I for one am eagerly waiting for a GoG release of DK2, as i cannot for the life of me stop DK2 from randomly crashing. Its the only problem i have yet not managed to fix

Buy it, you won't regret it. Both are great games, the first one was awesome when it came out and the second provided some good improvements

DK2 disappointed me for a few reasons. The biggest being that the Horned Reaper was no longer a regular creature, just a powerup/end game animation. I remember in DK1 when I finally got my 'Horny' I gave him a grand design of dungeon all for his lonesome. I would feed him chicken and other creatures till he popped. I loved when I found the creature transfer to the next level, you bet my Horny came along. That all you need! Although he was pissed at the beginning of the next level for a long time, I had to close him up all by himself.