It can be a headache, especially when you're starting out.
One thing to remember is that your forum password is not necessarily your EQEMU password if I remember correctly. That got me a few times.
Also it is difficult to install, likely because they cannot explicitly tell you the best way to install it, but I find that having my install zipped up and extracted right to my drive on a fresh install really helps.
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So whenever I reinstall it goes something like this:
Verify my account username and password (forums and EQEMU)
Extract the zip of my game files to my folder
Download and extract the latest P99 patch
Find the eqgame.exe in the directory, go into properties and make sure it's running in Win XP compatibility mode
Start the game with the launcher
And since a few patches ago that's the extent of what I do and it runs really smooth - inthe past I would recommend that Voodoo program and a ton of other tweaks, but I find it isn't really necessary anymore.