I recently installed Baldur's Gate 1 and everytime I start the game it goes through all the logos and the intro cutscene and then just crashes. I have it installed outside of Program Files yet this problem still persists. I don't have any mods installed so mod compatability can't be the case.

If you have the game installed outside of Program Files, no mods installed (including patches), and the logos and intro movie plays fine, then it is either something wrong with your installation (uninstall, remove all traces and start again), or it is a background process interfering. Disable all background processes temporarily, especially antivirus.

I did all that and the same problem still occurs. I re-installed the game four times and still no luck. The game crashes and keeps telling me that Tales of Sword Coast has stopped working. I tried running it as administrator and compatibility mode and I still get the same message.

Also, I am able to install and run Baldur's Gate 2 just fine. It's just Baldur's Gate 1 that's giving me the problems. Would EasyTutu possibly fix this issue? I want to experience the vanilla game of Baldur's Gate before installing mods (as I do with every game), but if there are any mods that can fix this potential issue then I'll just get them. I just want to play this saga from start to finish so I can understand first-hand why people hail Baldur's Gate 2 as the greatest RPG ever.

I have the latest download of the GoG version. So i'm not entirely sure if any patches have been applied to it. I didn't install any fan made patches if that is what you would like to know.

The GOG version has all of the official patches, and some extras, so you don't need to do anything. It's odd that you're having this trouble, since I run Window 7, and I've never had any issues whatsoever, even with mods. It may be worth taking a look at your baldur.ini, just to see if there's anything screwy going on in there. Would you copy/paste the entire contents here, please?

[Alias]
HD0:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate
CD1:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD2:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD3:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD4:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD5:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD6:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
[Program Options]
SoftSrcKeyBltFast=0
SoftBltFast=0
SoftSrcKeyBlt=0
SoftBlt=0
SoftMirrorBlt=0
Translucent Shadows=1
Maximum Frame Rate=30
Path Search Nodes=4000
Tooltips=45
Sprite Mirror=0
Gamma Correction=0
Brightness Correction=0
Volume Movie=80
Volume Music=30
Volume Voices=80
Volume Ambients=80
Volume SFX=80
Strref On=0
BitsPerPixel=32
[GameSpy]
Region=0
[Program Options]
Volume Music=40
[Game Options]
Memory Access=100
Footsteps=1
Weather=1
[Config]
CacheSize=240
[Movies]
BG4LOGO=1
TSRLOGO=1
BILOGO=1
INFELOGO=1
INTRO=1

Your ini is incomplete. Overwrite it with the following (note that the Alias difference is because you don't have the 6 CD version):

[Alias]
HD0:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate
CD1:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD2:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD3:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD4:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\
CD5:=C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\data\;C:\Games\Dungeons and Dragons\Baldur's Gate - The Original Saga\Baldur's Gate\CD5\
[Program Options]
SoftSrcKeyBltFast=0
SoftBltFast=0
SoftSrcKeyBlt=0
SoftBlt=0
SoftMirrorBlt=0
Translucent Shadows=1
Maximum Frame Rate=30
Path Search Nodes=400000
Tooltips=10
Sprite Mirror=0
Gamma Correction=0
Brightness Correction=0
Volume Movie=80
Volume Music=30
Volume Voices=80
Volume Ambients=80
Volume SFX=80
Strref On=0
BitsPerPixel=32
Full Screen=1
Screen Position X=1
Screen Position Y=1
3D Acceleration=1
[GameSpy]
Enabled=0
Region=0
[Game Options]
Memory Access=100
Footsteps=1
Weather=1
Inventory Pause Warning=1
Memory Level=1
Mouse Scroll Speed=50
GUI Feedback Level=5
Locator Feedback Level=3
Bored Timeout=15000
Always Dither=1
Subtitles=0
Keyboard Scroll Speed=70
Command Sounds Frequency=2
Selection Sounds Frequency=3
Effect Text Level=62
Infravision=0
Tutorial State=1
Attack Sounds=1
Auto Pause State=145
Difficulty Level=3
Quick Item Mapping=1
Environmental Audio=1
[Config]
CacheSize=768
DisplayConfigMsg=0
[MissionPack]
HardDrive=1
[Multiplayer]
Last Protocol Used=2
Player Name=Fred
Session Password=
Session Name=Session 1
Default Permissions=00000001
Restrict Stores=1
Import Character=7
[Movies]
BG4LOGO=1
TSRLOGO=1
BILOGO=1
INFELOGO=1
INTRO=1

I copied and pasted this into my ini and I still have the same problem. For the alias thing it seems that I don't have a folder called /CD5. So maybe that might be the problem.

Yes. I often have very long paths to my games. All my GoG games have worked perfectly fine even though I categorized them in specific folders. I'll try and put it in a simpler location and see if that works.

Edit:
Thanks so much. I was wondering though, do you have any idea why a simple directory worked as opposed to my more complicated one?

It's an old game (1998), developed in the days of Windows 95. File paths had more restrictions then, and the game itself probably has some limitations of file paths, as your case has shown.

I've just got exactly the same problem. This solution worked twice !

Thanks !

I never would have guessed that the long file path would cause a problem like this (especially since GOG suggested the file path name). Thanks for the sol'n!