I always used windows mode with FSX and XP because I got better FPS than full screen. However after installing Win 7 it was just the opposite, I had to use full screen to get better FPS.Today I got bored and did a bit of experimenting. I moved the task bar to my second monitor and BAMM!! FPS was through the roof in windows mode, 70-80 FPS. I moved the task bar back, set windows to max, and down they went again. It seems if the FS window even slighty touches the taskbar, it kills the FPS. This may be old news to some, but it's an epifiny to me! My task bar now resides on my second monitor and I am running FSX with everything maxed and getting amazing FPS, and thats with UT2 running at 100%Hope this might help any 'window mode' users.

You can achieve the same thing by either a) shrinking your window so it doesn't quite touch the taskbar or :( (better - since you can see more of the screen) use auto-hide taskbar - it's amazing, the difference it makes, I agree.ETA: the smiley should be b-bracket... not a good use of a smiley-alternative, I reckon!

Tested a bit more, if the sub panels on the second monitor touch the taskbar, that also lowers the FPS on the main monitor. No idea why this happens but at least now we have a solution.

Tested a bit more, if the sub panels on the second monitor touch the taskbar, that also lowers the FPS on the main monitor. No idea why this happens but at least now we have a solution.

Does this apply to Windows XP as well, or just Win 7?Thanks, Bruce.

Does this apply to Windows XP as well, or just Win 7?Thanks, Bruce.

I always had better FPS in XP in windows mode, experiment ans see what happens

Why not just auto-hide the task bar?

Why not just auto-hide the task bar?

Because for me, I fly while also 'working' online, and if a message comes in, the taskbar pops up. Its easier just to move it to the other monitor.

Because for me, I fly while also 'working' online, and if a message comes in, the taskbar pops up. Its easier just to move it to the other monitor.

Beware of notification balloons coming up from the taskbar or tooltray. When they overlap my FSX window, they also hit the frame rate

I tested this too in my single screen W7 set up.No frame hit whatsoever because of window-taskbar overlaping hereFor me full screen has always been 3-5 frames better than windowed mode, but with the classic Windows theme both perform exactly the same.Ok, I observed a significant increase in FPS while my task bar hides (like 10 FPS) but as soon as it's gone, the frames drop back to normal. Tried killing the explorer process altogether but that didn't help either.Another thing that has some sort of impact in performance for me is the mouse pointer focus in both modes. When I use my mouse frames go down by some 3-4 and a couple of seconds after releasing it, when the ponter disapears, frames go back up again I plan to go 3x screen soon. I'll repeat my tests then and will report back