In Windows 10, I had a problem at launching CC2, as it just lowered the resolution and got stuck until you switch back with Alt+Tab. Then, after hitting "Continue" on a message window with the first explanations on the menus, I had the error "Rectangle provided was invalid".

Support redirected me to a precedure to enable DirectPlay at the "Turn Windows features on or off" window, option "Legacy". It didn't work, even after trying to run as administrator, reinstalling and verifying DirectX and video drivers.

What actually worked was to disable DirectPlay at "Turn Windows features on or off", clicking on OK, and then enabling again. Pretty much uninstalling and reinstalling DirectPlay. Game's running fine now.

It may also work for other problems. DirectPlay is considered deprecated and that's why you are asked to install it when running CC for the first time. Somehow, mine was messed up in the first time it was installed.

I remember with CC3 that the rectangle invalid error was due to the screen resolution being too high for the size of the map, so if the map's dimensions were say; 1000x500 and your screen resolution was 1920x1080 then the game would crash on trying to load the map.

What resolution options are provided with this release of the game?

I might have to look at trying out the tool you mention when playing maps with smaller than display resolution dimensions.

Yeah, I heard of that problem with map dimensions. The fix worked for me for the resolution problem at launching.

This release allows 800x600 and 1024x768 (both 16 bits/pixel).

Not really sure if this works for map dimension. The problem with DIrectPlay happened at launch, forcing you to use Alt+Tab to return to the game. This alternation between the game 1024x768 and the desktop 1600x900 may be the source of the error message, which wouldn't be the issue while loading a map. Well, didn't run into this issue yet, so it's merely my personal speculation.