Well after reading some of these posts and spending quite a bit of time trying to run MTG on Windows XP, I have come to the conclusion that there are some that are able to run MTG on XP and those that will have serious problems.
Basically I have discovered the culprit on why I am unable to run deck.exe successfully. The other programs work fine but because deck.exe has a problem, it also kills the chances of using Shandalar and editing your deck of cards in the game.
After reading the post with someone saying that killing the EM_EXEC.exe process allowed all their cards to appear in the deck editor, I decide to investigate. This was also true for me also, but when I moved the mouse down into the cards area (bottom scroll area) the program crashed.
Now em_exec is a Logitech mouse program, so that had me hunting the Logitech Web site for new drivers, I downloaded the latest drivers and installed.
Now when running the deck program all cards appeared without killing the em_exec process. Unfortunately the program still crashes when I move the mouse down into the cards area.
I ran the Logitech mwadvanced program and made sure the setting for detecting games was turned on. I also have the mouse accelerator turned off and made changes to the registry as detailed on their site for games that may have problems.
1. Open the Registry Editor and find the registry key below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\GamingCompatibility
(I had to create the key)
2. Right click on the right side window of the Registry Editor and choose New String Value.
3. Type in the game's executable name. For example, deck.exe.
4. Exit the registry editor
5. Close and restart EM_EXEC.EXE, (I rebooted).
Now when you play your game, the mouse will use native button functions; all MouseWare button assignments are now disabled in that game.
Repeat this procedure for any games that don't use Direct Input and/or OpenGL.
Sadly none of these fixes worked for me. I think the registry fix is more for button problems. Anyway looks like the only other option would be to dump the Logitech mouse for another type such as a Microsoft mouse.
Indecently, my mouse is the Logitech Travel mouse, driver version mw9791enu.exe
I am running “Duels of the Planeswalkers” with manalink132 installed on Windows XP Pro Sp2.