Home Studio 2002 freezes on launch -- one solution is Esc key

Try this solution first if your Home Studio 2002 hangs when launched.  It works for me on Windows 7 and Windows 10.  Other solutions can be found at:

 
Symptom:
    When Home Studio 2002 is launched, the Cakewalk Home Studio window comes comes up with the splash screen frozen in front of it.  When the mouse pointer is over the splash rectangle, it displays as a spinning disk indicating that it is busy, but it never finishes.  The main Cakewalk Home Studio window is unresponsive, since the focus is on the splash screen.
 
Solution:
    With the mouse pointer over the Cakewalk Home Studio window (but not over the splash rectangle) hit the Esc key.  The splash screen disappears and Home Studio works normally!
 
Hope this works for you!