Do NOT run with "Run As.." mode since that will only screw up Continuum even more then you are now. The "Run As.." mode is a way to run a program with someone else's profile and rights, however, you also run the program in a way that Windows XP tries (yes, it never really succeeds) to prevent anything being written to the harddisk. This must be done in a weird way because the program still thinks it can. There are so many causes for this problem, including bad dll's (which might not even be from Continuum installation). Here is a list of things that might be related to, or even might sclve the problem: 1) Update Video drivers to the latest version and DirectX (http://www.windowsupdate.com) 2) Make sure every test checks out ok with dxdiag (Start / Run / 'dxdiag' ) 2) Anti-Spyware & Anti-Virus (these shouldn't be the cause, at least not anti-virus) 3) Try using this package (unzip in a different directory, then try to run Continuum.exe) I hope these will help to solve the problem. Let me know the outcome.