Impulse encoutered a catastrophic error and must be shutdown

Where are you getting the download from?
Are there any other errors in the event log?

CyberCrist sounds like you are getting a bad download. Try uninstalling again, run a clean up program and reboot. Turn off your Anti-Virus program and try reinstalling. This has helped some folks to get a good install. If it works remember to turn back on your AV program.

Post back and let us know what happens.   

disable any firewall as well.

I'm having the same problem....before I attempt to do this, I have one question: IS this going to bork all of my games? Last time I had to money with Impulse, it blew away my metaverse character for GalCiv, and support still hasn't been able to get it back for me...I've just gotten the other stuff to work right again, and I don't want it all going sideways again.

Why would it be necessary to do that if the firewall blocks a program it will give a popup & let you know,it then gives option to ok or disable,if you accidently click disable it's possible to re-inable it by going into firewall settings & unblock it,if the entry is not there then the firewall is not the cause,personally it's very bad advice to even suggest turning off the firewall it'd be like saying it's ok to remove all the skin off your body & you'd still be safe from infection,your firewall is your first line of defence not anitvirus,i can't remember if impulse can be installed offline if it can then it'd be quite all right to turn off the security ware in which case your forgiven

Not the case. Simply turn off the firewall for the purposes of downloading the one item. You are not vulnerable to all things if this is the one thing your computer is doing. If you should get some sort of massive error while doing this chances are it was something already in your machine. What I am trying to say is it isn't like removing the skin as you are not totally exposed if you only turn it off for a moment long enough to get what you need. More so if you are unable to turn your security settings back on, or automatically can do so be restarting your PC then you might need to look into better software.

The purpose of turning off security is that if it happens to corrupt or remove too much data in any scans, sweeps, or what not then the program will be missing data and will fail. Since several security software programs are jumpy at the slightest thing a program that has security measures, accesses BITS, and can download + install software is a major target. I can say for certain that Impulse is not a threat. To also be clear AntiVirus is more often the cause for this than firewalls. It never hurts to try one and then also the other if the first time did not work.

Impulse can be installed offline as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns here or through support@stardock.com.