So no way to holster weapon & nothing in the control options lol 1 of the 1st things you can do with in seconds of entering the game which is to interact with an NPC & you can't because there's no way to holster your weapon lol

Switch 'weapon' to something that cannot hurt anyone, like the binoculars. It could have been mentioned in the manual but it was not, not that I could find.

I remember it perplexing me too for a bit when I started playing.

Read the post below this post! I learnt something new after so many years :-)

To holster your weapon, press the key it is bound to again.
The two weapon slots are bound to keys "2" and "3" by default, "1" is the knife.
So if you have your rife out, press 2 or 3 to holster.

I had the syringe in my hand & even that was seen as a weapon. Quite funny, but then I guess you could still stab someone in the neck or the eye with it. Easy when you know how. Thanks!

Another problem now the game is crashing when trying to turn in a mission. The 1st one given on the boat. The guy is sat near the fire & as soon as the dialogue window is opened the game freezes then CTD. Tried compatibility & other suggestions, nothing works. SO yet another bugged game from GoG to add to the list. Anyone know of any other way that might fix this issue? (the only fix I have is to stop using GoG).

Which game are you having these issues with? Sounds like Call of Pripyat? If you want to holster a weapon then press the same number again.

I don't know what to tell you about your CTD but if there's a bug report from it, you should share it. I've ran this game on two different machines since 2011 Steam and GOG versions both have been fine for me without fanmade patches. Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl also both worked fine (besides CTDs, especially in Clear Sky) for me unmodded but there were bugs you should consider getting the fanmade patches for.

I'm not sure it's a GOG issue as much as it is an Xray Engine issue. It's not the most bug free series and the engine isn't known for stability.