Save Empire Earth

I'm trying to play with a friend via direct connection. As soon as i click to Start Game, my game crashes to the desktop with a message saying 'EmpireEarth.exe stopped working.'

I am using Windows 8.1 64bit. Both our games are updated to 2.0 + NeoEE's patch. Possible solutions i have tried:

Compatibility Mode - Win95 : It makes the game crash on start-up.
Compatibilty Mode - Win98/ME/XP/Vista: Game freezes if i try to change any settings. Crashes on Start Game aswell.
Compatibility Mode - Win7
Tried with all resolutions, they didn't fix.
Disabled/Enabled V-Sync.
Changed 3D Acceleration types.
I may have tried other solutions, but i can't remember them now.

Here's the catch:
The game used to work before, in the same system. It didn't work at first, but then i did some of the steps above and it started working.
My friend started having some issues when installing the game and applying the patches, so i decided to do a clean re-install to help him troubleshoot his problem. Since then, i haven't been able to play online again.

Hopefully someone can help me.

Thank you.

Try disabling, I mean COMPLETELY disable your antivirus software (do you have AVG?) when playing EE, since usually those cause the crash.

I'm not using any

You mean it worked on the very same computer before?
Then something must have been changed so it does not anymore.
You can try to create a new account and try it from there?

It worked on the very same computer. As i said, i uninstalled it completely so i could help a friend.
I got the same error the first time, but i managed to fix it, i just can't remember how. Trying on a different account didn't work.

"Instaler crashes on install"
TO FIX -> delete all registry keys of neo ee

"Game cd key problem"
TO FIX -> Open WONLobby.cfg in ee dir and try changing cd key check from true to false or reverse.

"Artifacts mouse laging"
TO FIX -> Use Direct X hardvare TNL