I am running it as admin. The bottom menu not appearing seems to be related to the freezing. It's actually just the graphics freezing, as I can still hear the sounds, etc., but that still means it's unplayable if a freeze hits at a bad time. I also have text speed at maximum, so it's not that. The freeze can apparantly occur in any part of the game - VN mode, gameplay, even on the main menu. The top menu completely refuses to appear after using your fix.
Edit: also tried using compability modes, no luck there. I'm going to try to reinstall it from scratch and only use your remove.bat fix (w