Apparently the Directmusic fix is broken on new versions of Windows because the cmd script for it uses commands that haven since been deprecated:

Re: New DirectMusic breakage in Windows 11

KainXVIII in the linked thread mentioned fixing the script, altough he never released his own version so try to ask him if he still has it (if he did make a fixed version of the cmd script in the first place).

Also, apparently you can just rename the existing .dlls in the system folder and replace them with the ones with the fix manually, altough this either requires taking ownership of the files and editing the read and write permissions for them, or using something like PowerRun, which lets you open Explorer with system premissions.

FX506 wrote on 2025-09-13, 15:19:

Apparently the Directmusic fix is broken on new versions of Windows because the cmd script for it uses commands that haven since […]
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Apparently the Directmusic fix is broken on new versions of Windows because the cmd script for it uses commands that haven since been deprecated:

Re: New DirectMusic breakage in Windows 11

KainXVIII in the linked thread mentioned fixing the script, altough he never released his own version so try to ask him if he still has it (if he did make a fixed version of the cmd script in the first place).

Also, apparently you can just rename the existing .dlls in the system folder and replace them with the ones with the fix manually, altough this either requires taking ownership of the files and editing the read and write permissions for them, or using something like PowerRun, which lets you open Explorer with system premissions.

This fixed it, thank you!!!!!!
(Manually backed up any existing files. Manually installed new ones from the fix. Ran registry .bat files as admin. Restarted, and Unreal II Intro now proceeds without music getting stuck in a loop on a white screen).

No problem.

I only take ownership of original dmscript.dll, temporarily give Administrators Full control permission over the file, rename it, copy new file there, restore ownership / permissions of the original file. The original file in SysWOW64 folder is a hard link, it also appears in Windows' component store, so somewhere in WinSXS folder.

If I'm not mistaken, that keeps component store virtually intact, so checking it with DISM should come out clean. And if you ever need to run sfc, run it in verification only mode and check the logs to see if only files you changed are on the list of bad ones.