To all concerned, one thing I've found that helps on framerates that I don't think has been mentioned before concerning WindowXP/FS2k4 is those happy 'Visual Effects' desktop features that are all on by default (these settings are found in your 'Systems Properties' under the 'Advanced' tab). Most if not all these features should be cut off in your logon that you use to run Flight Simulator. Wallpaper, Animated Windows, Fade out effects, etc. should be turned off. Use your own discretion at to what you need, I found I needed some things (for example show contents while dragging actually is needed if you move the ATC window in FS2k4 like I do) but remember all those little features eat up system resources and it's really noticeable when their on or off when running Flight Simulator... In Windows period one should look to turn off as much crap that you don

Very useful hint, Dillon! Thanks!Paddy.

Yes, a good tip. FS Autostart can automatically switch these sorts of things off and on for each FS session.Allcott

No Allcott, 'Services' are what FS Autostart switches off. :-eek Desktop features are a whole other issue... Users need to go in shut off all the little candy features WindowsXP has on by default. Actually the ideal would be for the end user to remove desktop wallpaper as well. As I mentioned here FS Autostart won't do all these things alone. From my observations anyone serious about the best FS performance should create a new logon solely for FS and turn everything off as possible. All those little cool mouse features, taskbare features (autohide), etc. should be off. Give it a try and I'd bet your performance with FS improves.... :-wave

FS Autostart stops/restarts XP `Themes`, with it goes most of the desktop eye candy.If you want to improve the desktop speed, don't delete the wallpaper, delete the Themes.Allcott

Your right Allcott I checked it out. I still would recommend a 'bare bones' profile (logon) geared specifically for running Flight Simulator. FS Autostart takes forever to shut all those services down and start Flight Simulator... I'd still use it even with a 'bare bones' profile because both options used together give you that much more horse power to play with in the end... :)

>Give it a try and I'd bet your performance with FS>improves.... Improves but by how much? I noticed that most of those suggestions have absolutely zero effect on my system - nothing that I could really see. There are but a very few key tweaks that really make some difference but most - and this includes shutting down unnecessary services - are seemingly worthless.Michael J.WinXP-Home,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8, Radeon X800 Pro,WD 36GB Raptor,1 GB PC3200 http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

I don't see any effect either. I've stopped doing the XP gaming tweak thing, for me XP runs best with the default settings, and using a utility to stop and start services never helped my FS9 performance either. As far as I know having all that XP stuff running in the background just eats up memory, but that shouldn't be a problem if you have 512 or more.The best 'tweak' I can recommend is new hardware and buying the best you can afford. I saw a big difference then! Some flights still include my desktop background and icons as part of the default scenery though - a new computer didn't help with the CTD syndrome.Douglas

>The best 'tweak' I can recommend is new hardware and buying>the best you can afford. I have to agree with this one!!Michael J.WinXP-Home,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8, Radeon X800 Pro,WD 36GB Raptor,1 GB PC3200 http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

I use two special hardware profiles to run FS9, one for online and one for offline. This prevents anything I don't want from loading in the first place and gives a not massive but very noticeable performance boost. It also lets me mess around without having to worry about screwing up my system.David

To Michael J.I noticed your using the WD Raptor harddrive.I've been thinking about getting one of these things.Does it make a diffrence to the performance of FS as oppose to something like what I'm using now.WD 120G with 8mb cache,72,000 RPM(I think).

I fooled around with custom users on my Win2K system but found that the best approach for me was to just go in and trim down the system I use everyday. I've turned off or gotten rid of everything I didn't need and now I have an everyday system that performs very well and also runs FS9 without a hitch.TonyDigital-Flight

When I used FSautostart, there was no real difference in my performance. Then when I unistalled the FSautostart and went into msconfig, I switched things off myself and picked up an average of 3-5 fps. Not a huge impact, but good enough.It helps to have background operations turned off, but it also helps to have a beefy system to start with. Gig of ram, 128mb card, a fast processor to crunch all the numbers, and a awesome power source to run the whole thing.:D

You could probably do a lot better setting up a hardware (or services) profile for FS9. I don't pay attention to framerates, just smoothness, and how far I can push things before I begin to see any stuttering. In my offline profile nothing loads except what's essential for FS9. This works better on my system than shutting things down after they load, perhaps because I still use Norton LOL, (seems like no one else does anymore). I also have a powerful system and suspect this would be even more beneficial on an older system. Profiles are a fairly safe way of experimenting because if you mess up, the system will boot from the default profile. For info goto http://www.blackviper.com/ . He also strongly advises against using msconfig.David

>>>>>Improves but by how much? I noticed that most of those suggestions have absolutely zero effect on my system - nothing that I could really see. There are but a very few key tweaks that really make some difference but most - and this includes shutting down unnecessary services - are seemingly worthless.<<<<<<