To change to Software mode,
simply open up the Tachyon.cfg file with WordPad. Under the
[VIDEO]section, change USE_HARDWARE=1 to USE_HARDWARE=0,

why are you not playing it under xp ?

Tachyon The Fringe (Demo)

Works fine for me on 2000, XP 32bit, 2003 32/64bit, Vista 32/64bit.

The only OS I had issue with was NT4 and there I had to use Zeckensack Glide Wrapper so perhaps you should try running it on the host with Zeckensack.

Dont install a wrapper Tachyon is d3d only it doesnt support glide

Thanks - am now trying to play-test Tachyon in my netbook's host Win XP (that is, until I get my joystick set up).

Here are images of 1) my "Tachyon.cfg" settings -

and 2) the tech report of the "this program encxounted an error...needs to close" error message (game proper never starts up - I get this error message instead) that I get when I click on "Play" in the game's menu (after I get to a window showing 2 screen shots side by side, the one on the left having green text on it, listed as "enabled" and the one on the right having no green text, listed as "disabled") -

When I click on the "video settings" a message pops up saying it's going to test the video, click "OK", so I click OK and I get a black screen.

Tachyon works for me on xp
what gfx card do you have in your pc

edit I have tachyon set to win98 compatability

[LOCALE]
YES_KEY = Y
NO_KEY = N

[VIDEO]
WINDOWED=0
USE_HARDWARE=1
NO_VSYNC=0
RES=2
HW_TYPE=2
DEVICE=0
DEF_GAMMA=100
DEF_BRIGHT=70

[AUDIO]
DEVICE=0
A3D_DEVICE=6
RATE=2
A3D_CHANNELS=16
SFX_CHANNELS=16

[MULTI]
PORT=2766
VON_PORT=0

[JOYSTICK]
FORCE_FEEDBACK=1

[CONTROL]
INPUT = 0 ; 0-joystick, 1-mouse
MOUSE_DEADZONE = 1
MOUSE_SENSITIVITY = 8.0
RUDDER_SCALAR=1.0

[INGAME]
PAK_DISTANCE = 3.5
STAR_BLUR = 1

[MUSIC]
MENU_FILE = MENUBGS
MENU_SCRIPT_NAME = OPENING_BG

[GENERAL]
GAMEPLAYED=1

just tried changing USE_HARDWARE=1 to USE_HARDWARE=0
and it still works

ps: try a nocd