Dear Gog team and fellow players:

I am surprised that after this long, this simple fix has not been applied for the installation. Perhaps Gog team could kindly modify the Installation soon?

To succesfully launch the game, go to the game folder of Dracula 2, and launch game.exe instead. If you try to launch the game from the default shortcut, you will get an error pop up message that says "The files for the Autorun have not been burned to CD/DVD correctly."

addendum:

sometimes the game.exe needs to be renamed to its original filename: fvr_viewer.exe

cheers

It also worked for me on win10.

Nope, none of the posts here helps me to start the game.

For context, the advice being given by others here seems to be copied from an older thread ID dracula_series/dracula_2_the_last_sanctuary_asking_for_cd_o_o. (Not allowed to post links.)

I've done some sleuthing and the state in which this product is being shipped is rather funny. But I'm trying to avoid narrativizing it because it's hard to pin each of the numerous issues on any of the involved parties being: index+, a whole bunch of publishers, among them former studio then publisher Microïds (Microids SA / Anuman); Dotemu and GOG. I'll try to just give you my observations. Make your own conclusions.

So the actual game executable is 'Game.exe'.
It's an ancient Phoenix VR viewer middleware by 4X Technologies being basically used as a game engine.
'Dracula2.exe' is a launcher that reads the configuration at './Launch/Settings.ini', which tells it what to launch and how.
In this case it's launching Game.exe.
The launcher configuration seems to contain references to assets of MegaRace — the first game published by Microids in 1994.
You'd wonder why that wasn't changed… If you do change it — turns out that the launcher was produced with usage of a trial version of AutoRun Architect that has been tricked into thinking that every computer this is installed to is the same one, but changing some of the parameters breaks the spell.
There is also a reference to Dotemu, who might've tweaked the launcher parameters they could to aid compatibility before GOG bought it from them. But I shouldn't narrativize…
The launcher executable was compiled for Egypt II: The Heliopolis Prophecy — a game published by Microids in 2000.

The launcher executable, upon installation, seems to be configured with a Windows compatibility mode for the scope of the entire OS installation. This prevents non-administrator accounts from changing its compatibility mode.
This compatibility mode messes up the trial AutoRun Architect's pathing and it complains about the burned CD.
The OS-installation-wide settings are beyond the "Change settings for all users" button at the bottom of the compatibility properties window.
Disabling the compatibility mode, surprisingly, allows the launcher to run properly.
However, as others pointed out, the launcher can be foregone altogether.

The game executable has another possible problem and is not set a compatibility mode. If it launches minimized for you and you can't seem to switch to it — the simplest fix is to enable the 640×480 compatibility mode in its properties.
I ended up wrapping it with DxWnd to run at native resolution and not interfere with task-switching.

There are people who will tell you the 'Settings.ini' file is an inert rudiment of the installation. They are incorrect. The launcher does very little, mostly just shows a publisher splash screen, but the configuration file indeed gets read.
There are people who will tell you that the game executable needs to be renamed to 'fvr_viewer.exe'. That does not seem to be a good idea with the currently published version. Perhaps an older one pointed to that in the launcher configuration.