The maximise frames rates I close down the Icons along the bottom of my screen before launching Flight Simulator.When I've finished flying I reboot to make sure that I don't forget to open something that may be important.Is there a simple utility to close the background programs simultaneously before launch FS then open them simultaneously after finishing with FS?And if there is such a utility are there any prgrammes that should NOT be tamperered with by closing down?

Why, yes there is! :-)FSAutoStart will do the trick - see the link in my signature.

Not wanting to take anything away from Ken's FSAutoStart there is also Enditall, a search on the Web should find a download.

>And if there is such a utility are there any prgrammes that>should NOT be tamperered with by closing down?www.blackviper.com has some really great info on what services should always be running, which ones can be shutdown, etc etc.

Also, the best way to optimize framerates (this is in conjunction with the mention of blackviper.com) is to minmize the number of programs, applets and sevices that start at boot time. End-it-all and other programs terminate programs and applets after they've loaded, but they don't always clean up memory some of these programs reserve for use. I operate in the reverse way--I start with a minimum of services and system tray applets enabled (only icon I have in the systray at startup is the volume control, for example). I have a special folder which contains icons for the applets I've disabled. If after a MSFS session I want to enable any of them, I launch them from their icon.-John

I would also recommend FS Autostart. It is a very nice utility. I like it because it allows you to shut down all unnecessary services and programs to play Flightsim, then after you are finished it automatically restarts them up again. This way you don't have to reboot before and after playing, and most importantly you don't have to remember to restart things yourself.

Does this program automatically turn off certain services or do you have to tell it which ones to close first?If you have to tell it, which ones do you add?

You tell it once, then it remembers. Not just for FS9 either, you can create profiles that can be loaded allowing you to have different .exe execute after background apps/services are shut down. You could also create profiles with different services/apps shutting down before FS9 is executed...it's very configurable.Can't go wrong with FSAutostart!Best,sg

Thanks to all of you for your helpful advice and comments!