Some facts and questions about Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro 1 and WinXP...

It's seems impossible to solve the ancient problem of making SFF Pro 1 perfectly compatible with XP.I've not enough words of discredit about the behaviour of MS: the joystick was very expensive at the time of his release and their only answer to solve the problem with XP was to purchase a new Force Feedback Pro 2.Now they came to a decision of not produce hardware anymore, so, if someone followed their suggestion very probably will have the same problem with a new OS.A simple release of a new SWGAME version would have solve the problem but of course this is too cheap in their opinion.I don't wonder that Bill had come the richiest man in the word!I've read many forums and sites looking for a solution, so I'll put here some facts that could help someone with higher skills in programming to find a solution:1) Some users report that XP recognizes the joystick but get error when trying to access the properties.At first I had the some problem but I solved it installing newer drivers for the soundboard (SBLive in my case).2) Like many of you I'd like to have stronger forces in FS9 but it seems that modify any parameter in FS9.cfg or in the aircraft.cfg is useless. If someone knows that this is not true let me know!3) I examined the old setup of the SWgame utility and discovered that there was a file in common with XP: SW_EFFCT.DLL. Probably (I'm not an expert) the amount of force strenght was written in the windows registry... so if someone of you is still running win98 with a FFPro 1 please upload a copy of the registry settings wherever it seems to refer to the sidewinder or to the file above mentioned. Adding these settings in XP registry perhaps could help4) If someone of you is an expert and likes to examine the old swgame utility, the way to obtain a directory with the installation files is this:Before launching the swgame change its compatibility to win95.Launch the setup but don't close it when it gives you error:it creates a directory somewhere in "C:Documents and Settings..."To find out which is this directory, search for "SWTRAY.EXE". Copy the directory to an other location and close the useless utility.5) If someone knows a link where it's possible to download a new version of swgame (probably it was relased with the FF PRo 2) let me know6) I tried the new FS Force software but the Force Feedback 1 is in their list of incompatibility. I hope they will consider also the old FF PRO 1 owners like us.Hoping this can help!Bye