When I run the launcher and click play, my cursor moves to some fixed point on the desktop and looks like it's about to start the game but nothing happens. When I click config, (Which someone on another thread said you didn't need to use in order to start the game but I thought I'd try anyway) it would start and crash.

First of all make sure DirectX 9 is present on your system by installing this:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

If it still doesn't start, try running it as Admin (right-click the game's shortcut => Run as Administrator)

Do the files go into the Jade Empire folder or wherever DirectX 9 would be?

No, after extracting you need to run DXSETUP.exe to install them.

Well I've installed everything and tried running as admin but unfortunately it hasn't fixed the problem.

Maybe there's something that can be changed in properties?

I haven't got it installed right now and I don't remember all the options in the Configuration Utility.
But the configuration is stored in the JadeEmpire.ini file in the game's installation folder.
What you could try is disabling Anti-Aliasing by opening JadeEmpire.ini with any text editor and setting FSAA to 0
Save and exit.

But before, I'd try running the game in Compatibility Mode for Windows XP.
Go to the game's installation folder, right-click JadeEmpire.exe => Properties => Compatibility tab and set the compatibility mode. Now double-click JadeEmpire.exe to start the game. If it doesn't work change the compatibility setting back.