See this.

You’re welcome.

THIS NO LONGER WORKS. Well, it might. There was a comment recently from someone who actually got it to work, that was on october 7th. I don't think this person was playing on LIVE though. Basically, there was a patch that came out for the game and ruined the whole thing for us. Shadowrun was kind of crappy anyway, so i didn't bother trying to fix it or looking for any other updates. My HOW-TO will tell you how to get around the  error "This application has failed to start..." and that's it. Please don't post any questions here; I don't have answers and i don't want this to be a place to discuss illegal software. If you get yours working, and on LIVE, let me know and I'll update the HOW-TO with your information.

Recently, Circuit city had a sale on Shadowrun for PC: Buy the game, get $15 off, AND get a Wireless Gaming Reciever for Windows. That last little item lets you use a Xbox 360 Controller on your PC. Pretty sweet deal, right? Right. The problem is that Microsoft expects you to install Vista if you want to play Shadowrun.

Pass.

Fortunately for us, a hack / crack exists. Razor 1911 has released an archive containing 5 files that will let you play Shadowrun in XP. I recommend grabbing this from your favorite torrent site. It may also be available on usenet or IRC, but that's way more work than opening up the pirate bay and grabbing the 4 meg archive.

The installation is fairly simple. Allow me to borrow from the .NFO file:

The problem with this is that it is assuming you are installing the scene release - the w***z version. (We don't use that word on EvilLawnGnome.com because we don't want to attract the wrong type of user). I think there are quite a few people out there that have legitimately purchased this game and want to play it on an operating system that doesn't have a bad case of fail. I can't speak to Linux, but i can speak to XP.

Copy the files onto your pc

1. Open up the dvd. Get thyself into x:/program files/microsoft games/
2. Copy the shadowrun folder to someplace warm on your hard drive, wherever makes you happy.

Fantastic. Now, you need to crack that whip.

Apply the crack

Again, taken from the .NFO in the crack package:

1. Go into your installationfolder and delete the srsw_shadowrun.dll.
2. Copy srs_shadowrun.dll and srsx_shadowrun.dll to your installationfolder.
3. If you want the XP compatability, copy the files from the xp/ subdir to your installationfolder.
4. If you want a shortcut on your desktop, this is the time to make one!

Attempt to run it

At this point, double click on Shadowrun.exe and hope for the best. If it works, you can go on your merry little way. If you have the same luck that i did, you've got a few things you can do.

"This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may resolve the problem"

This is why i hate microsoft. What a worthless error. Here's what you need to do:

1. Re-install DirectX. Just for fun. Let's rule this out as the problem.
2. Install the Microsoft VisualC++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable package.

You should now be able to play Shadowrun in XP. I came across this solution simply by googling for "Reinstalling the application may resolve the issue." This was a problem with a piece of homebrew code for something or other. I found it here.

All that remains is for you to configure your Live account. At some point, it may tell you that Shadowrun needs to update. This is A-OK. Said update may also complain that "The original file does not exist." Sounds like fail, right? Wrong. Fire up shadowrun again, and you should be ready to rock.

Well, ready to rock as hard as one can in this game. I hear it didn't get very good reviews...