Playing in windowed mode is possible by using a virtual Wine desktop. Just set it in winecfg under Graphics tab. The desktop can be of any size.

The built-in solution of this game doesn't usually work, and the virtual desktop solution is also much more stable.

NoCD

Built-in functionality can be used to play without a CD. Just download this file and put it in the folder you installed your game in. Note that the fan patch provides a different solution for this which is enabled by default.

Unofficial patches

There is an unofficial patch fixing many issues and adding additional functionality. The link for it is under available in the fanpatch version in AppDB.

Hardware vs. software rendering

Hardware rendering works in general better under Wine, however netbooks (or similarly weak machines) have trouble coping with it - the game will work, but you might experience lower performance at times. Recent Wine versions seem to work well with both however.