General? Return to flight simulators after a long lay off

[westmoors 0]

Hallo,. I would probably be considered a lapsed member as I have not had the time to spare to indulge myself in this fascinating pastime due to health matters for over a year..

 

Some time has passed since I used any flight sims and found that now with windows 10 upgrades I  (and many others according to posts I have read on other sites ) seem to be in trouble running almost all Microsoft Simulators on 10.  I do not seek an answer here it's more  of a beef about the difficulty in sorting out the complexities of the systems.

 

i include a letter which I sent to a computer magazine which pretty well sums it up, but any suggestions providing they are simple from other members wold be greatly appreciated . I say simple because at 84 the grey matter does not always function in top gear !

 

extract

 

Windows 10 and Flight Simulators

 

 

I have used Flight simulators for many years and with many operating systems. We all slowly had to change as Windows bribed, coerced or even blackmailed us into changing as the years went by ( 95, 98, ME,  XP,  Vista ,  7 and 8 ) before 10 came along.

 

All had issues when it came to simulators, admittedly some were never designed for systems that weren’t around when the product was released but patches were soon available to keep your favorites going, and pretty well under control up to window XP.

And so we came to Windows 10, hailed as the ultimate, version (don’t miss the opportunity to change while it’s free) and it is  to be here forever, we soon found that just like some of it’s luckless predecessors it did have faults.                                                                                                                                                                   

 

  The very latest and I believe the last Microsoft Fight Simulator was FS x also named 10 and it was the most expensive which required a large amount of disk space and needed a more powerful computer so I changed going up quite a lot in specification.  The simulator did need a lot of tweaking but did run.

 

However after the last few update or upgrades it will not work at all, uninstall and start again results in the start up wizard failing before it even gets to actually installing the program, and a similar fate has befallen most of the other simulators I have when trying to run in Widows 10.

 

Combat Flight simulator Europe WW2 a very old one loads and opens but you can’t control the plane with the joystick, Combat 3 a later version installs but won’t open at all , FS 2004 installs and won’t open, but FS 2002 which incorporates 2000 and is quite ancient works perfectly !

 

My query is with the Windows policy, do they intend planned obsolescence of Microsoft products because it so they are doing a good job, but does anyone designing any Windows operating systems actually try to run older programs to see if they work or do they just wait until the complaints and cries for help arrive and then try and fudge something together.

 

I have tried compatibility settings when available and running as administrator, also painstakingly following cures posted on the net which frequently become very involved but mostly refer to files either to change or delete which I do not have in my computer so I can’t complete the task.   

 

 Some of MS support was tried which in the case of getting FS x to load involves changing the file name, that did not work, or installing a windows package only to be told I did not have enough storage space when I tried, ( 1 TB 80% unused, how much do they want ? ).   Close certain files which I could not locate even after  following the detailed instructions on how to find them, but I did stop at the suggestion of creating a new account as I could see real trouble ahead in that direction and finally decided not to download .NET FRAMEWORK because I had no idea what it was designed to do.

 

So a bit of a moan I am afraid but there must be hundreds if not thousands of us in the same situation.

 

My own solution. ?  Drag out my old computer which runs XP and re load all the simulators into it, don’t plug into the WWW and disable the AV and firewall  if it still  works  that way at least I shall be able to get some results

[Jim Young 2,356]

Welcome back.  Hope you have fully recovered from your health issues (although, at 84, a new one seems to crop up after one goes away).  I golf with individuals in their 80's and they sometimes hit the ball further and more accurately than me (at 71).  I hope they can continue for many more years and I hope your health and quality of life improves. 

 

Many have no problems running FSX or any of the other flight simulators on Windows 10.  AVSIM does have a forum set up just for Windows 10 users.  Windows 10 does include additional security as many Windows users over the years have complained to Microsoft their operating system did not stop malware or viruses from being installed on their computer.  Microsoft decided it was time to protect you from evil people around the world who attempt to compromise your computer system.  Windows Vista and Windows 7 were enhanced with additional security features but they mostly did not affect the operation of any of the flight simulators.  Windows 8.1 had even more stricter security and now Windows 10 has arrived with even more (and updates even add more security!).  When Windows 7 was released, AVSIM and many other developers and computer experts informed us on how to properly uninstall and install FSX and P3D.  The rules are simple....

 

• Disable UserAccessControls (UAC)
• Disable any Malware/Anti-virus program when installing a flight simulator and/or make sure you exclude those programs from scanning your FS directories.  You will also want to make sure Microsoft Essentials (the freeware anti-malware program) is not scanning and messing up your files too!
• Do not install the FS program in the default directory.  Instead, install in a directory such as C:\FSX or E:\FSX (or P3D).
• Enjoy using FSX or P3D.

One of my favorite guides for installing FSX was developed by tech experts at PMDG - http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx.  The guide can be used for FSX-SE and P3D installations too.  AVSIM also has the AVSIM CTD Guide which also provides valuable information on installing and running FSX on the newer Windows platforms.

 

Best regards,

Jim