I currently run FSX and all 200Gig of associated add-ons on a 1TB external USB HDD and all works great. I run FSX on the external HDD because I was tired of having to do constant reinstalls of FSX and all the addons when I was having PC problems that normally were resolved best by re-installing Vista. The idea being that if my PC becomes a problem again my FSX set up would not be effected in any way.I only have Windows Vista, Internet and a couple of utility programmes on C drive. My question is, if I want to reinstall my OS or change to Windows 7 in October, will just running the FSX Reg Utility (Flight1) after new OS installation, allow me to immediately use FSX and will all my addons still be linked to FSX?

Hi,FSX yes. Add ons, maybe, depending on if they make their own registry entries.

Hi,FSX yes. Add ons, maybe, depending on if they make their own registry entries.

Many thanks Jim...noted and understood. Is there a way of me looking if any addon does make a Registry entry?

Hi,You would need to search the registry for each one in question.

The utility works fine, but I found I have to also modify a some .cfg files that are not under the main FSX dir to allow some addons to work and scenery to be found.Has anyone ever made a list of those files and locations as they differ from XP to newer OSes and also are often duplicated on the PC?

I currently run FSX and all 200Gig of associated add-ons on a 1TB external USB HDD and all works great. I run FSX on the external HDD because I was tired of having to do constant reinstalls of FSX and all the addons when I was having PC problems that normally were resolved best by re-installing Vista. The idea being that if my PC becomes a problem again my FSX set up would not be effected in any way.I only have Windows Vista, Internet and a couple of utility programmes on C drive. My question is, if I want to reinstall my OS or change to Windows 7 in October, will just running the FSX Reg Utility (Flight1) after new OS installation, allow me to immediately use FSX and will all my addons still be linked to FSX?

I have an external USB drive that I used for partition backups, it was very slow. Whether your USB drive will affect FSX performance I don't know but as texture loading is an issue with FSX then it may be a performace detracter. I recently bought a new External Sata II hard drive to replace the USB one and my backup speeds are the same as get by backing up onto a permanently installed SataII drive. Something for you to ponder. :(