Having had a major hardware meltdown about a week ago, I am awaiting delivery of a new PC, with a Windows 7 64-Bit operating system, in the next day or so. Although I have most of my previous FS9 set-up backed up on external hard drives, having had quite a traumatic reinstallation a few years ago, I am now contemplating a fresh installation, prolonged and tedious as that can be, as that seems to be the better way to go. I have however a huge amount of both payware and freeware (my old FS9 was over 375GB in size) and although I will try to be sensible and slim down the installation on this occasion, I am very conscious that I need to set about this correctly from the very start.

 

I have spent quite some time searching and trawling Avsim and some other sites for advice as to the best way to go about this on Windows 7 64-Bit and discovered that a lot has been written on the subject. As a result I am now suffering from a significant degree of information overload particularly as some of the advice seemed conflicting and confusing!! The most useful information I seem to have come across has been from the late (and greatly missed) Opa posted in April 2010, from Dillon posted in July 2011 and from Chris (Hightower) in a thread started by Ian (Kiwiflyer) in July 2012. My new rig is in fact quite similar in specification to Ian's.

 

Before I jump in at the deep end I would be very grateful if anyone could identify any other essential threads or sites, other than those mentioned above, which I should read to prepare for this?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

Bill

Hi Bill,

 

I really don't think it is all that complicated. Perhaps the fact FS9 is a 32 bit application and you are going to install it in a 64 bit operating system is the scary part? It's not. It's the same as if you installed it in a 32 bit OS except that many recommend you skip the installation into the default folder and instead install it in its own folder, say C:\FS9 or E:\FS9. Some people have stated they had problems with their addons if they installed it into the default folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (or something like that). I have my FSX installed in the default with my addons (most of them) located on other disks in their own folders and have not had any problems whatsoever. I actually would love to see the crash reports or error reports that someone had when they installed their product in the default folder and had problems with their addons because of it. So that is really going to be the issue for you - to install in the default folder or install in a non-default folder. FS9/FSX and any 32 bit program works great in the 64 bit environment. In fact better because memory is managed better in the 64 bit environment and one of the major advantages of Windows 7, 64 bit. I actually can't wait for the 128 bit OS's!

 

I just went through a reinstall of FSX as I had a HDD issue and had to reinstall the OS and now FSX and lots and lots of addons. Take your installation of FS9 slowly. No reason to hurry and get everything done right away. Make sure you start up FS9 and configure it before starting the task of installing your addons.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Hi Bill,

 

I really don't think it is all that complicated. Perhaps the fact FS9 is a 32 bit application and you are going to install it in a 64 bit operating system is the scary part? It's not. It's the same as if you installed it in a 32 bit OS except that many recommend you skip the installation into the default folder and instead install it in its own folder, say C:\FS9 or E:\FS9. Some people have stated they had problems with their addons if they installed it into the default folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (or something like that). I have my FSX installed in the default with my addons (most of them) located on other disks in their own folders and have not had any problems whatsoever. I actually would love to see the crash reports or error reports that someone had when they installed their product in the default folder and had problems with their addons because of it. So that is really going to be the issue for you - to install in the default folder or install in a non-default folder. FS9/FSX and any 32 bit program works great in the 64 bit environment. In fact better because memory is managed better in the 64 bit environment and one of the major advantages of Windows 7, 64 bit. I actually can't wait for the 128 bit OS's!

 

I just went through a reinstall of FSX as I had a HDD issue and had to reinstall the OS and now FSX and lots and lots of addons. Take your installation of FS9 slowly. No reason to hurry and get everything done right away. Make sure you start up FS9 and configure it before starting the task of installing your addons.

 

Best regards,

Jim

 

Hi Jim

Thanks for taking the time to reply - i appreciate that. I think you have put your finger on the key point when you say take it slowly as I suspect that most of the problems and frustration associated with my last reinstall on XP a few years ago were as a result of not taking my time and trying to install too much at a time without always checking each installation in turn. I will try to control my enthusiasm this time and do it all in a more controlled and methodical way!

Kind regards,

Bill

I actually would love to see the crash reports or error reports that someone had when they installed their product in the default folder and had problems with their addons because of it.

 

That's not the issue with installing FS to the Program Files location.

 

Due to Windows increased security applied to those folders making changes to files in those folders is more challenging.

 

Installing FS outside of those folders simply makes customizing and tweaking the sim easier as you will not have UAC bugging you all the time because it thinks you are a virus.

 

regards,

Joe

I would strongly advise you to NOT install FS9 into the default folder. Windows 7 will not allow some software to "self-modify" files in this location.

Make your own folder (eg: C:\MyPrograms\FS9) and everything will be much easier for you.

 

I have been running FS9 successfully on Win7 64bit for 2 years now with only a few minor niggles at the beginning (video card related).

Having had a major hardware meltdown about a week ago, I am awaiting delivery of a new PC, with a Windows 7 64-Bit operating system, in the next day or so. Although I have most of my previous FS9 set-up backed up on external hard drives, having had quite a traumatic reinstallation a few years ago, I am now contemplating a fresh installation, prolonged and tedious as that can be, as that seems to be the better way to go. I have however a huge amount of both payware and freeware (my old FS9 was over 375GB in size) and although I will try to be sensible and slim down the installation on this occasion, I am very conscious that I need to set about this correctly from the very start.

 

I have spent quite some time searching and trawling Avsim and some other sites for advice as to the best way to go about this on Windows 7 64-Bit and discovered that a lot has been written on the subject. As a result I am now suffering from a significant degree of information overload particularly as some of the advice seemed conflicting and confusing!! The most useful information I seem to have come across has been from the late (and greatly missed) Opa posted in April 2010, from Dillon posted in July 2011 and from Chris (Hightower) in a thread started by Ian (Kiwiflyer) in July 2012. My new rig is in fact quite similar in specification to Ian's.

 

Before I jump in at the deep end I would be very grateful if anyone could identify any other essential threads or sites, other than those mentioned above, which I should read to prepare for this?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

Bill

 

 

Oops, I see you already mentioned by thread on the topic. :blush: I'll still post the link in case anyone else needs to read it:

 

http://forum.avsim.n...indows-7-64bit/

What addon aircraft will you be installing ? I had a few niggles with the DF 727 and F1 ATR configuration managers, but were solved after a bit of research.

What addon aircraft will you be installing ? I had a few niggles with the DF 727 and F1 ATR configuration managers, but were solved after a bit of research.

 

Thanks folks for all your replies. I have to admit that I am a scenery and aircraft junkie and have almost every good piece of FS9 payware available (and quite a few less good ones!). I have both the aircraft mentioned above and, as they are IMO amongst the very best addon aircraft available for FS9, I will certainly be planning to install them. I am sure they won't be the only challenge over the next few weeks or months!

 

Bill

i've installed and run FS9 on Win7 64 bit with no problems. Obviously I can't speak for all the addons available

Thanks folks for all your replies. I have to admit that I am a scenery and aircraft junkie and have almost every good piece of FS9 payware available (and quite a few less good ones!). I have both the aircraft mentioned above and, as they are IMO amongst the very best addon aircraft available for FS9, I will certainly be planning to install them. I am sure they won't be the only challenge over the next few weeks or months!

 

Bill

 

Both a/c installed fine , but the config managers could not be opened. I suggest you install and if you have problems report back or do a search on the Df or ATR forums forn the error message. Got mine working fine.

 

Peter

Bill

 

I went through the whole thing mid-last year. I'm not at all computer savvy. Installing/uninstalling sceneries/aircraft is about the limit of my knowledge. Honestly. Following most of the advice above, I must say I found the whole 'installing FS-9 into Win 7 64 bit' to be very simple and straightforward. Yes, one or two minor issues popped up, there was something with the DF727, but a simple Google search always provided the solution.

 

Overall I'd say the whole process was pretty easy. See my specs for all the stuff I had to reinstall.

 

And it all runs like a dream now :-)

Thanks Gavin, that's reassuring!

 

I've come across quite a few references to making a second 'vanilla' installation of fs9 during my research, but I remain a little unclear as to the purpose of this - is it just a convenient backup of the basic fs9 installation in case any of the files in the active installation become corrupted or is it a way of testing new fs9 addons in a 'less complex' environment?

 

I would also appreciate advice on where this should be installed and how it should be labelled? My new PC is coming with a 120GB SSD and a 2TB SATA hard drive. In addition I have available a number of quite big external hard drives which in the past I have mainly used for back up and storage purposes. I was planning to put my active fs9 installation on the 2TB drive, but, in that case, should the 'vanilla' installation go on the SSD?

 

A final question - do I need to make the 'large address aware' modification to run fs9 optimally on Windows 7 64-bit?

 

Thanks again in advance for any help!

 

Bill

 

A final question - do I need to make the 'large address aware' modification to run fs9 optimally on Windows 7 64-bit?

 

Thanks again in advance for any help!

 

Bill

 

Yes

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