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Jimmy RFR

'Home' Page Tweak / Tip on Starting FSX:SE

By Jimmy RFR, in MS FSX | FSX-SE Forum

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Jimmy RFR    406

Jimmy RFR
Posted

Although I don't have many hours on it yet (been keeping busy on a different platform), about two months ago I made the switch over to FSX:SE.  I'd bought it for a whopping $5 during the Steam Xmas sale, and I since I had developed a need to move to a bigger 'sim' hard drive, I figured I should try it out.

 

Well, all good... except for one little tiny issue that started to get under my skin... The current version of FSX:SE starts at the 'Home' screen each and every time.  Which is bad enough, but it also throws three scripting errors at me, asking my permission to continue running scripts.  When developing scenery / gauges / whatever, a few restarts of the sim over the course of the evening, and it starts to get a bit annoying.

 

So, I don't know if this has been covered here or not, but this was my solution:

 

Step 1: Block the website www.fsxworld.com

This is where the annoying script errors are coming from.  Not to mention, the page that finally does load is pretty much unusable anyhow.  Seriously, doesn't anyone actually check this stuff?  My method for blocking the website (on Win 7 64bit Pro) was to add an entry to the Hosts file: 127.0.0.1 www.fsxworld.com.  For info on how to edit / find your hosts file, there are plenty of in-depth tutorials online.

 

Step 2: Change the 'offline' loading page

This took a bit to find.  When you apply the above block, the IE browser that FSX uses thinks you're offline, and displays a rather useless and uninviting static page all about how you are missing out by not being online.  Well, since I don't mind missing out on a few extra popup dialog boxes every time I start my sim, I don't need to see that page.  It turns out the static 'offline' page is located in your FSX location, at FSX\uires\gs01.htm.  This page can be safely changed to anything you like.

 

In fact, a neat little trick is to do a redirect in a Meta tag:

<html><head>
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.avsim.com/forum/121-ms-fsx-fsx-se-forum/">
</head><body></body></html>

That will load up this forum, right in your FSX home page.  Useful?  Not really, and in fact it throws a script error too.  But the point is, you can put any webpage you want there, even simply link to a big aviation image like so:

<html><head>
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/4/3/2687348.jpg">
</head><body></body></html>

I would imagine that you could even find some very creative uses for it to display FSEconomy stuff, or VA stuff, or whatever.

 

Anyhow, since I no longer have to click on unwanted dialog boxes, nor look at a garbled mess of a home screen, I'm happy.  If anyone finds this stuff useful, then great.  If not, ignore it. :wink:

 

 

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Jim Stewart

Milviz Person.

 

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Lorby_SI    2,036

Lorby_SI
Posted

If you want to get rid of the "Home page" - the link is in Dialogs/gshome.spb.

 

1. You get a small tool from flyawaysimulation called "spb2xml".
2. You decompile the dialog file: "spb2xml gshome.spb gshome.xml"
3. You edit the resulting xml - you can put any link in there that you want ("_blank" is a good idea...). The home page is the tag <HtmlDocument id="urlLive">
4. You move the xml file to the SDK into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimProp"
5. You recompile it using the SDK: "simpropcompiler 2spb -symbols "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\propdefs\*.xml" gshome.xml gshome.spb"
6. You copy the new gshome.spb back into the Dialogs folder

LORBY-SI

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Dirk98    354

Dirk98
Posted

So, I don't know if this has been covered here or not, but this was my solution:

 

Step 1: Block the website www.fsxworld.com

This is where the annoying script errors are coming from.  Not to mention, the page that finally does load is pretty much unusable anyhow.  Seriously, doesn't anyone actually check this stuff?  My method for blocking the website (on Win 7 64bit Pro) was to add an entry to the Hosts file: 127.0.0.1 www.fsxworld.com.  For info on how to edit / find your hosts file, there are plenty of in-depth tutorials online.

 

I edited hosts file in \Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts by adding                                      127.0.0.1 www.fsxworld.com line and this is the error that I get now at launching FSX-SE/HOME page:

 

An error has occureed in the script on this page.

Line: 108

Char: 17

Error: Object doesn't support property or method "slippry"

Code: 0

URL: http://www.fsxworld.com/products/games/FSXInsider/fsxlauncher.htm

 

 

Please help.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

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Dirk98    354

Dirk98
Posted

Ok, after editing gs01.htm as per #2 all goes very well up to the resulting jpg.

Excellent tweak.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

 

PS: I should try gshome.spb method as well. Btw, which one is more efficient program-wise?

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Lorby_SI    2,036

Lorby_SI
Posted

Ok, after editing gs01.htm as per #2 all goes very well up to the resulting jpg.

Excellent tweak.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

 

PS: I should try gshome.spb method as well. Btw, which one is more efficient program-wise?

 

A link that is not called at all is more efficient than one that is called, blocked and leads to an exception/internal error/error message. Generally speaking, code that works always uses less resources than the same code containing errors and having to deal with them.

LORBY-SI

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Jimmy RFR    406

Jimmy RFR
Posted

 

 


If you want to get rid of the "Home page" - the link is in Dialogs/gshome.spb.

 

Shows there is more than one way to skin a cat!!

 

It's worth pointing out, however, that the method I used requires only the use of notepad, and the blocking portion of the tweak will persist through any possible overwrite of changed files on a Steam update.

 

It's also worth pointing out that the decision to take away a feature used on every startup of the sim, remembering the last main menu page opened, was very inconsiderate.  This tweak (either way it's done) would never be anything more than an oddity if it weren't for that.

 

Anyhow, since I have to look at the screen with it's newly replaced webpage anyhow, it's time to think of some actually useful stuff to put there.

 

I just had a thought that by reading the location in whatever .FLT file is saved as default, perhaps one could then display an up to date METAR for that location.  That would be handy for me, since I generally use the sim by flying to place to place, each time shutting down the aircraft and saving a .FLT file to reload on my next flight.

 

Hmm....

Jim Stewart

Milviz Person.

 

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Armando83    1

Armando83
Posted

I have no this folder

 

If you want to get rid of the "Home page" - the link is in Dialogs/gshome.spb.

 

1. You get a small tool from flyawaysimulation called "spb2xml".
2. You decompile the dialog file: "spb2xml gshome.spb gshome.xml"
3. You edit the resulting xml - you can put any link in there that you want ("_blank" is a good idea...). The home page is the tag <HtmlDocument id="urlLive">
4. You move the xml file to the SDK into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimProp"
5. You recompile it using the SDK: "simpropcompiler 2spb -symbols "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\propdefs\*.xml" gshome.xml gshome.spb"
6. You copy the new gshome.spb back into the Dialogs folder

 

I have no SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimProp folder in FSX SE. Have no simpropcompiler as well...

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Lorby_SI    2,036

Lorby_SI
Posted

There is a workaround. With SE you can use the Prepar3d 1.4 SDK, it's a free download from Lockheed Martin.

LORBY-SI

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MDFlier    2,031

MDFlier
Posted

That sounds like a lot of work to undo a nice feature. I like the new start screen. It changes often, which is a pleasant reminder that FSX is still alive and kickin'.

 

Why do people want to get rid of it? 

 i9-10850K, ASUS TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS (WI-FI), 32GB G.SKILL DDR4-3603 / PC4-28800, EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLACK EDITION 11GB running 3440x1440 

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Armando83    1

Armando83
Posted

That sounds like a lot of work to undo a nice feature. I like the new start screen. It changes often, which is a pleasant reminder that FSX is still alive and kickin'.

 

Why do people want to get rid of it? 

Because I have 3 script error massages before home page loads.

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MDFlier    2,031

MDFlier
Posted

I had that problem before I upgraded from XP to Win 7. I think the version of IE you have just doesn't like some of the newer HTML that DTG put onto the page.

 

Thanks for replying. I was just curious... 

 i9-10850K, ASUS TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS (WI-FI), 32GB G.SKILL DDR4-3603 / PC4-28800, EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLACK EDITION 11GB running 3440x1440 

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