I recently purchased Icewind Dale and am trying to run it on Windows Vista x64. (Dell XPS 630i)

I've tried tweaking every option I know :
-Installing it both in and out of the program files directory
-Using differant compatibility options
-Running in windowed mode
-Running in administrator mode
-Buying a digital copy on this website hoping it would have fixed the errors I got from the CDs I was using.

The same problem happens everytime :

1)The game loads to the menu screen, and when I try to start a new game the whole screen gets shaded and I can't click on anything.

2)After clicking around frantically in desperation I managed to stumble upon an invisible button that becomes visible after you click on it.

3)It's in middle of the screen and is just a "Done" button but the window remains invisible. I've tried clicking all around it and all over the screen but that's the only button available to click on, and it simply returns me to the menu.

Please help I've wasted a lot of time and money trying to get this game to work.

(I took screenshots but whenever I attach them it loads for a few seconds and remains at 0 of 2 MB used)

*Edited for typo*

What is your video card? Any piece of crap card should work, but it certainly sounds like a video problem.

Try turning off desktop composition, or Windows Aero.

It is not a Vista problem, fyi.

I've seen people posting this same issue on the IWD forum here before. Some people have been able to fix it with various different things, some haven't. But you aren't the first person who's had this exact same problem.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/icewind_dale/game_freezes_after_clicking_create_game
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/icewind_dale/not_running_properly_on_win_7

There may be more threads there, those were just the first I found. Try going to the IWD subforum and searching. Many folks have fixed it by doing the things that you've already listed. Some folks have fixed the problem by disabling UAC entirely, or by running the installer as an administrator. Others have fixed it by disabling their antivirus, or creating an exception in their AV for the Icewind Dale .exe. What antivirus are you using?

1) If you're running a rig with w Nvidia cards in SLI, disable SLI before playing.

2) Another thing that has worked on other older games is setting the color depth to 16 bit instead of 32 bit. don't know why, considering the games these tweaks were made on were made to run on 32 bit, but it did work for some.

3) If you're running a separate video card but your motherboard does include onboard, integrated graphics, I've heard that using the integrated graphics can sometimes fix problems.

4) Pray.... j/k, just keep trying things, and keep looking here, especially in the game specific forums. Yeah, I think it's most certainly a video problem.

Just tonight I installed Lionheart, launched, and the intro screens all played fine, and then when it went to the main screen, nothing but crap all over the screen. Couldn't make out anything.

Disabled SLI, voila. Fixed.