https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=43011
--- Comment #18 from R Domingues rfjdomingues@gmail.com --- (In reply to Evren from comment #14)
Here, https://us.battle.net/forums/en/starcraft/topic/20754425833 Blizzard dev suggests checking/allowing StarCraft.exe on the firewall using the following command. (ClientSdkFirewallHelper.exe should be within the same folder with StarCraft.exe)
"ClientSdkFirewallHelper.exe -allow [Path to starcraft.exe]"
I think you've got it wrong, the DEV asked a user to download and run a different utility than the one present in the game folder (same name, different files ~400kb vs ~250kb). I ran it and it simply added both starcraft.exe and mdnsresponder.exe to the Windows firewall. When I run the game, the pop up doesn't show anymore but the problem still remains.
I deleted starcraft.exe and mdnsresponder.exe entries from the firewall whitelist, and I ran StarCraft from the USB drive. The popup appears, I press OK but nothing is added to the firewall. The moment I select a gateway and try to login I get a message from the Windows Firewall asking to add StarCraft to the whitelist. mdnsresponder.exe is not whitelisted but the game still runs.
If this solves your popup and delay issue on Windows 8.1 we may narrow the issue to Firewall call. What I am thinking that, once you enter the multiplayer menu, ClientSdkFirewallHelper gets fired but unable to return immediately causing a timeout and delay for the main StarCraft.exe process. And following that for each subsequent action, called again..and again waiting for a timeout to continue.
It may be worth noting that while the text is not rendered, the starcraft doesn't lock. I can't still go back in the menus.