gameux.dll depends on GameUXLegacyGDFs.dll to get data needed to populate Game Explorer.

I took ownership of GameUXLegacyGDFs.dll (Security -> Advanced) and then set Permissions to Deny for every user/group.

I just checked Aracnum (which also hanged) and it works fine. Process Monitor shows that on game launch rundll32.exe is spawn and gameux.dll tries to access file mentioned above, but fails. Game runs normally.

EDIT -
for unknown reason I'm unable to attach image to this post (35kb PNG) - so instead here is imageshack link: http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2087/owndeny.png

Whoa, that's rather complicated. I just opened the game explorer folder clicked options and switched off everything. And the problem disappeared.

Anyway, congratulation for a nice tracking of processes and files dependency

I assume you have installed your games as an admin by right clicking the setup.exe and clicking "Run as an administrator" on the resulting dialog. Also that you are running the game as an admin by right clicking the game shortcut, clicking Properties, clicking the Compatibility tab and checking "Run this program as and administrator". So . . .

Comodo, on my system, will throw up "allow" dialogs for games on the first run. Some games will allow the dialogs to be seen . . . some will not. I can ALT-Tab to the desktop to see the dialogs, clicking Allow for each but . . I found it easier to make the game exe's trusted programs in Comodo. (See attached image) Doing this fixed some run issues I had with several games.

Might or might not solve your problem but worth a try . ..=)

Edit: Check the install tips for Divine Divinity. Except for the resolution tips, the install tips work well for most games on Vista / Win 7.

This happened all the time on my laptop while I was overseas. Never has happened on my desktop. Both use the same OS, Win7 64bit.

At the time when I was dealing with that problem my goal was not only to come up with solution that would prevent game hanging but also stop Game Explorer from listing any games.

While I really like Windows 7, there are some things that just doesn't work right and Game Explorer is one of them: there is no easy way to add/delete games from them, any notification about privacy, no 1st time configuration (as WMP have) and no easy way to disable this future.

Anyway, taking ownership of file and changing permissions is quite easy: find a file and click through proper options.

Note for the above solution, simply deleting the registry does the trick for me...