Every time i click the 'options' button on the main menu the game will crash to desktop with a standard App Crash windows 7 find solution/report box.
"
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: SpellForce.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 43bd2a59
Fault Module Name: StackHash_e98d
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00000000
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: e98d
Additional Information 2: e98dfca8bcf81bc1740adb135579ad53
Additional Information 3: 6eab
Additional Information 4: 6eabdd9e0dc94904be3b39a1c0583635
"
i need to change the options, especially resolution as the game looks like trash on my 28" screen at the default resolution its displaying.
none of the other buttons cause a crash. just options.
have tried XP SP3,XP SP2, Vista SP2, Disable Desktop Composition, Run As Administrator on the compatibility options. none work.
Windows 7 32bit Ultimate.
q8400
4gb
radeon 4890 9.11 drivers

It is weird.
Maybe take a look in the ATI CCC to see if it's enforcing some setting that should be handled by the application ? Or maybe try creating a game profile for Spellforce with tweaked settings, in case you don't want to mess up your global graphics settings (for all the other games) ?

A search on the official forums reveals that this crash is caused by background programs, ATI tray tools and Bitdefender in particular.

I had this same problem and read about how to start the game windowed in another GOG post.

Anyway, I made a shortcut to spellforce.exe, then right-clicked and chose properties, then added "-window" to the end of the Target: e.g. C:\games\Spellforce -window

With the game running windowed, I was able to click on options without having it crash. When I was done with the options I hit "apply" and config.lua was created in the game directory. I then started the game without the -window option.

Alternatively, just keep playing in windowed mode but edit config.lua and add the following lines (edited to suit your needs of course):

WindowWidth = 1024,
WindowHeight = 768,

FWIW