In summary, when I tried to launch english version of Sudden Strike, I got warnings from Kaspersky, and I have to launch it two times to be able to see/play the game, and it launches a rundll32 process which consumes a lot of ressources. And I found an easy fix apparently (see near the end). AND none of this occurs with the french version.

I'm using Win7 64Bits and Kaspersky Internet Security.

The longer/explained version now :)
So, I just installed a fresh Windows 7 with everything up to date (windows updates and my nvidia driver), and am using Kaspersky Internet Security.
I wanted to install Sudden Strike (with the offline installer, without galaxy included), and I first tried the english version.
Install runs perfectly fine.
I double click on destop icon of Sudden Strike to launch it.
4 warnings from Kaspersky Internet Security (see the captures launch1-4.png). Especially something related to "internet settings" or "TCP/IP". [Note : I trust GOG concerning security so I don't know what's happening]
After that, nothing happens. If I open TaskManager (see TaskM_eng_1-3.png 1st image) : I see the .exe of the game ("GAME_EXE.EXE"), but can't access to it, even with Alt-Tab. There is too an heavy consuming process of rundll32 who started in same time as the game.
So I have to launch the game again, this time it works, but when I open task manager I see that I have GAME_EXE.EXE two times (I didn't closed the previous one) : one still doing nothing (the previous one) and the other one that is working and that I just launched, and still the rundll32.exe using lot of ressources for nothing (for illustrations of both, see second line of images in TaskM_eng_1-3.png).
I disable the useless Game_exe.exe. The game works now correctly and I can Alt-Tab on it. But I still have this rundll32 process which consumes a lot of ressources (see last image of TaskM_eng_1-3.png). If I close the game, this rundll32 doesn't close, I have to close it manually.

With the french version, I encounter none of these : I launch the game, kaspersky says nothing, and no rundll32 process which uses resources (see images on Taskm_fr.png).

Fix : But, if I rename the file "GAME_EXE.EXE" of the english version (in the installation folder) into "GAME.EXE" : I encounter absolutely NO ISSUE, like for the french version.

I'm sending a support ticket to tell them about that and know what they think about it (I'll redirect them to this thread).
Hope this could help some to reduce heat of their comp' or even simply launch the game if they were having the issue :P
Thanks for reading :)

Note : And of course this is maybe only related to my personal comp' ! But just in case, I preferred to share the info :)

Edit : And it seems that I encounter the issue (except the Kaspersky part) for Sudden Strike 2 in English & in French. Fix is the same : renaming "game_exe.exe" into "game.exe".

Edit2 : I found this link which seems to be related. I forwarded it too to support.

Edit 3 : I'm explaining a bit more things on my next message :)

So after some researches, it seems that it's not really the fault of GOG but more on the side of Microsoft.
I'm using a Win7 64Bit that I just installed from scratch on a new hdd.
And it seems that Windows Games Explorer is messing a bit things when I want to launch a game.

If you want to know more, I created a dedicated thread here. If there are clean solutions (except from relaunching game or renaming game's executable) I'll post them here too :)

It happens sometimes for a games to get stuck when it tries to go online and Kaspersky (or other firewall) blocks it, so you need to kill the game process from task manager.
Two ways (that I can think of) to avoid this before launching the game for the first time:

1. See if you can launch the game in windowed mode, so you can easily have access to Kaspersky's pop-up windows. Go to PCGamingWiki and search for that game if it has some sort of parameter (like -windowed) to add it to the game's shortcut. Make the shortcut yourself, not those made by default that launch Galaxy or some other crap. :D

2. Put yourself the game .exe in kaspersky's rules and set it how you want - block or allow internet access. You might want to first scan the game's folder with kaspersky, or even double check by scanning the .exes and .dlls on VirusTotal.


Personally, I always block the games in the firewall, unless it's an online game, but I extremely rarely play one of those. I don't need autoupdates or notifications, leaderboards or some other crap - I do those manually when I deem fit.

You can probably block GameUX in the firewall, try and see how it goes.
From the pics you posted with Kaspersky, Game.exe was in the Low Restricted category. After you scan it and make sure it's clean, move it to Trusted category and those pop-ups will stop.

Concerning Sudden Strike 1, because I had the messages, I was able to tell to Kaspersky "it's trusted" : since no issue. But for Sudden Strike 2 and Blitzkrieg, I don't have the Kaspersky warnings at all, and... the .exe of the games are trusted ! I think it's the windows process that Kaspersky doesn't trust. But... if it's the "generic" rundll32.exe, I don't think it's a good idea to tell to Kaspersky it's "trusted", since it's a "container" ? (and btw, I can't see it in when it's launched in the Kaspersky's task manager)

And blocking web access is, I think, the reason of the issue : Games explorer want access to the web but can't. So I'm not sure blocking gameux would help :P Maybe preventing it to run ? But how ? I don't know exactly what it is (maybe in my main thread about it people will have some answers :P)

Not using automatically created shortcut is a good idea though, but unfortunately, it didn't solved the issue.

For what you suggested me : "I know GOG games come with GameuxInstallHelper.dll (it registers the game in GameUX, I think, or something like that), so you might wanna try delete (make backup fist) that before launching a game.
It's in the installer and the game's folder. Back it up and delete it from the game folder, see how it goes." :
But there isn't such file into the installation folder of Sudden Strike 2 :P And I don't know how to take it out from the installer ^^" (and it seems a bit a hassle too, but it could be a solution)

Rundll32.exe is probably already in the Trusted category, being signed by Microsoft.

At least from the pics you posted, GameUX was trying to edit the registry, not sure about accessing the internet, maybe after creating those keys? I see no harm in blocking it in the firewall.

And now I see why probably I haven't got any problems with GameUX - because I deleted it. :P I just found the backup copies for gameux.dll and GameUXLegacyGDFs.dll from System32 and SysWOW64 folders. But I still have gameux.dll in those two folders now - probably got put back by something else. So google it and you'll probably find more info about removing GameUX and if is worth it.

I don't have any Sudden Strike games, but being new releases on GOG maybe they changed their technique of doing all the settings and stuff, and GameuxInstallHelper.dll is not required any more, but many other older games and installers still have it, so look out for it.
My guess is that all the GameUX related stuff is now done by goggame-*ID number here*.dll

A tip you might find useful for Kaspersky is to change the default Network rules for the generic Trusted category. For Public network, instead of Allow change to Prompt for action. So now any new program you run and wants to access the internet will ask for permissions.

I finally followed what's suggested here : launching the script which renames gameux.dll in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder : not any issue anymore because the file doesn't "exist" anymore. That's an interesting tip, thanks ! :)