I decided to download the Vanguard client yesterday via the Station Launcher. Peter plays it occasionally, and I wanted to take a peek to test the waters.

Tonight I attempted to actually run what I’d downloaded.

Attempt #1: Fail. I never got past the pre-full-window-mode splash screen, and I got some sort of weird malformed double window frame with a perpetual “busy” hourglass cursor for a couple of minutes. I right-clicked on the task bar thingie and was able to close it without incident once I realized nothing was ever going to happen.

Attempt #2: Epic fail. Pre-splash splash didn’t last nearly as long, and then I got the full-screen blackout. Woohoo, here we go!

BLUE.

SCREEN.

OF DEATH.

I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve gotten a BSoD on any of my systems. This particular one is about 2 years old, running XP Media Center Edition, SP3. Needless to say, Vanguard is on indefinite hold…at least until I get up enough courage to try to launch the client again. *shudder*