I just bought Original War because I've read all the good reviews about the game but I'm not able to start it properly.
As soon as I start the game its switching back to the desktop and if I'm switching back into the game it switches back instantly within a second. I can hear the sound and musik but I'm not able to stay in the game.
I've allready tried to use 640*480 and 256 colors but that doesn't help.
I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate with the Asus G1s. All updates and drivers are up to date. My user account has administrator rights (I know its not save but I had never any problems and I hate switching acoounts for installations or setting changes :))
Does anybody have an idea?

Yea, update the game to the latest version through this site. Since Altar has given this team the go ahead.
http://www.owsupport.com/?sect=patches
It fixes alot of problems and lets you play mods and stuff. Its slowely growing. I just hope they manage to make an AI so that we can have skirmish

The patch didn't really help, the game keeps switching back to the desktop as soon as I'm in.

It seems to be a Vista problem and not the games fault. Even tho gog states that the games are Vista compatible problems might still arise. My tip: Switch back to XP

Um, someone with fallout had a similar problem and closing all unneeded applications solved the problem there, so give it a try.
Also, many old games have some kind of problem vith Vista's Aero...sikn or whatever it is called, so you should try and check the 3. and 4. box on the settings part of the compatibility tab.
You can also try different Windows OS compatibility modes...in some cases, they help.
If you start the game directly with owar.exe or remove the /run parameter in the shortcut, a startip menu will be shown, you can try to alter config settings there.
And you can try changing your desktop resolution to match the game's resolution. This is 800x600 or 1024x768, the former by default.
This is the point where I run out of ideas, but I hope some of this prooves to be helpful.

Sorry for my late answer, but I was too busy the last week, had hardly any freetime :/.
I've read the Fallout thread and it was Folding@Home which kept switching me back to the desktop. So thanks for your answer, if you could reply that to my question, I will mark is as the solution :). That will make it easier to find for other people I guess.

i just got dun installing origanal war and it whont run and i rid the some blogs but i dont under stand what folding@home means its saying creatprisaraceface failed im using windos xp