Update: This info is also valid for the Chronicles of the Damned mod (formerly WTD version 4) with an alteration listed below.

When my husband got Windows XP he enlightened me to the fact that because of the DOS window that pops up when you click the Within the Darkness shortcut, Vampire would crash. You see, while Windows XP works with most software designed for '98, with many games it gets fussy if you try and minimize them. When the DOS window pops up, it force-minimizes Vampire, which causes a crash.

Since I installed XP, I've discovered a very simple way out of this predicament. Before I tell you about it, let me inform you now that if you're using XP and try to install the WTD mod 3.5 beta it may stop at 99% installed and then give an error about a .pif file. Don't worry about this. You can't use this particular file anyway.

First thing you do is make a copy of your regular Vampire shortcut. Just hold down control and drag the shortcut somewhere. This will duplicate it. Change its name to WTD or something so that you'll know it's the shortcut to the mod.

Now, right-click this shortcut, click Properties, and add this line in at the end, after the filepath;

-user WTDarkness35 -console

**If you're using the CotD 1 mod, use -user ChroniclesDamned -console instead of what's written above.**

This is the command line that tells the .exe file that you want to use the WTD mod. This is basically the entire instruction that is in the batch (.bat) file within the WTD folder.

Here's a screenshot of the command line in place. Make sure you have a space between the end quotation marks and the dash before "user."

That's basically all there is to it. With this command line, your new shortcut will launch the modded game without any popup DOS windows.