Not sure if I understand this but there is no difference between FSX boxed and FSX-SE except Dovetail used a different version of Microsoft Visual and Microsoft dotnet when the product was installed.  Microsoft did not allow them any changes to the engine other than to make it compatible with Steam.  DTG did change a couple of entries in the FSX.cfg and added their own version of the uiautomationcore.dll in the main fsx-se directory but there were few additional changes.  Microsoft still has total control of the FSX license.  My boxed version of FSX works perfectly and the performance is absolutely stunning (I have fsuipc.logs to prove it).  Unbelievable fps even with fairly high settings (I use the settings in the AVSIM FSX Configuration Guide).  DX10 Preview is just as great as the DX10 Preview in FSX-SE.  They are both 32 bit applications so they both can easily run out of VAS if you do not watch your settings.  Of course, like FSX-SE, the more add-ons you have the more likely you will have FPS issues and OOM's from the loss of VAS. 

The only advantage I see with FSX-SE is the fact the boxed versions are becoming extinct.  It is also difficult to activate the product as you soon run out of activations and you have to then contact Microsoft and get additional activations authorized.  If you don't like that hassle, you can simply go to Steam and purchase FSX-SE for about $25.  Most, if not all of your FSX addons will work in FSX-SE and most developers have installers that will ask you if you want to install in FSX or FSX-SE.

One of the things that Mitch is experiencing is the clean installation of FSX-SE.  You always get good performance and graphics when you first install FSX or FSX-SE then you start adding the eye-candy and the addons, like FSDT, FlightBeam, Orbx/FTX, GEX, UTX2, MyTrafficX, Carenado aircraft, PMDG aircraft, to name just a few products.  The more you add, the more you have to adjust your FSX and display driver settings.

Many developers had to charge again for installation into P3Dv4 because you are going from a 32 bit application with FSX and FSX-SE to a 64-bit application with P3DV4.  They will make you pay another price when Microsoft Windows and P3D is upgraded to the 128-bit architecture.

But, what the hay.  They are all great sims.  FSX-SE is cheaper and can be installed fast and easy.  The boxed version you have to put a DVD in your drive and install it in that manner.  Personally, if you can afford the $199 for P3DV4, I would get that.  That is the future.  I have but hanging onto FSX boxed as I use it to compare between P3D and FSX.

Best regards,

Jim

Sad to see how much misinformation is still being given out regarding the differences between FSX and FSX-SE.  See the full list of changes here:  https://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/0/496881136926977562/

While the fix that flushes the terrain cache helps a great deal with the dreaded OOM issue, you can still have them with complex aircraft combined with complex scenery and weather, especially when using large texture sizes.

The performance optimizations, terrain cache flux, and other fixes are enough to keep me using FSX-SE while waiting for one of the newer sims to prove itself better!

I am not 100% sure, but I think the FSX-SE can't run at 1/2 refresh rate. The box version can run it at 1/2 refresh rate of your monitor.

Mike

35 minutes ago, Mikelab6 said:

I am not 100% sure, but I think the FSX-SE can't run at 1/2 refresh rate. The box version can run it at 1/2 refresh rate of your monitor.

Mike

It's works well for me at 1/2 refresh rate.

1 hour ago, Donstim said:

 

The performance optimizations, terrain cache flux, and other fixes are enough to keep me using FSX-SE while waiting for one of the newer sims to prove itself better!

P3D V4

3 minutes ago, mpw8679 said:

P3D V4

This!  I tried FSX-SE in both Win 10 and Win 7... both times the sim came out of the gate with the blurries.  Tried tuning them away but ended up back at FSX Acell... until P3Dv4 was released.  Never going back to a 32bit sim!

Greg

18 minutes ago, lownslo said:

This!  I tried FSX-SE in both Win 10 and Win 7... both times the sim came out of the gate with the blurries.  Tried tuning them away but ended up back at FSX Acell... until P3Dv4 was released.  Never going back to a 32bit sim!

Greg

I'll admit FSX steam still does pretty good.  I use it mainly for the Majestic q400 and PMDG MD11.  But after using v4 awhile and going back to FSX the difference in performance is pretty impressive.  I can max out my 1080ti in v4.    In FSX I can barely get 25% usage.

11 hours ago, Donstim said:

Sad to see how much misinformation is still being given out regarding the differences between FSX and FSX-SE.  See the full list of changes here:  https://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/0/496881136926977562/

While the fix that flushes the terrain cache helps a great deal with the dreaded OOM issue, you can still have them with complex aircraft combined with complex scenery and weather, especially when using large texture sizes.

The performance optimizations, terrain cache flux, and other fixes are enough to keep me using FSX-SE while waiting for one of the newer sims to prove itself better!

I agree but those fixes are for Steam...

3 hours ago, Jim Young said:

I agree but those fixes are for Steam...

Yep, that's what FXS-SE is. And the changes reading from top to bottom are relative to FSX boxed.

Thanks.  Even FS Insider states the sims are essentially the same.  But I agree they have made some minor changes for the better.  If there are any major performance improvements I would be surprised.  It's why I lumped them together in this forum and in the AVSIM FSX Configuration Guide.

2 hours ago, Jim Young said:

If there are any major performance improvements I would be surprised.

There were claims of double the performance over FSX for FSX:SE when it was first released but these seemed to be due to the "new install" effect. Once a few add-ons were installed reality kicked in. I've noticed a small improvement with FSX:SE but nothing that would cause me to encourage people to change if they already have a working version of FSX installed. In fact, when FSX:SE was first released someone from DTG said much the same thing.

The boxed version does not install in win 10. That's enough of a reason to avoid the boxed version.

I bought a copy of FSX-SE for $5. Maybe one day I might need it.

25 minutes ago, DJJose said:

The boxed version does not install in win 10. That's enough of a reason to avoid the boxed version.

That's a very inaccurate statement.  I just built a new system with Windows 10 and had to reinstall FSX boxed and all of my addons.  I had problems starting up FSX.  It would crash as soon as I tried to load to the setup screen.  I discovered that if I placed the old uiautomationcore.dll in the main folder, that fixed the problem.  So the issue and solution are discussed in the AVSIM FSX Configuration Guide with a link to the version.  I figured that, if DTG automatically installed a version into FSX-SE, then FSX needed it too for Windows 8 and 10 users and I was right.  Do not place the DTG version in the FSX boxed folder as it was specially made by DTG just for FSX-SE.

If it simply does not install, then the only suggestion would be to make sure UAC and your anti-virus program (if any) are turned off (Windows Defender included) (or the folder for FSX is excluded from scanning by your anti-virus program).  You must also right click and use Admin Privileges to install.  In any case, I and many other users are using the boxed version in Windows 10 without any problems.

Best regards,

Jim

8 hours ago, Jim Young said:

Thanks.  Even FS Insider states the sims are essentially the same.  But I agree they have made some minor changes for the better.  If there are any major performance improvements I would be surprised.  It's why I lumped them together in this forum and in the AVSIM FSX Configuration Guide.

Sure, they are "essentially" the same sim -- FSX.  But the improvements are not to be taken too lightly.  I saw some performance improvement, which was nice, but not the main reason I switched. me.  For me, flushing the terrain cache was significant as it allows me to operate the FSLabs A320 (and PMDG 737NGX) into all the complex airport/scenery/weather add-ons I have without the dreaded OOM crash.  Not that it is a 100% solution for OOMs (I can still experience them if I'm not careful), but it greatly alleviated them for me.  The performance improvements and some of the other fixes were nice adds to that.  FSX-SE and FSX boxed may be essentially the same sim, but they are very different in terms of playability for me.

When I first installed FSX/Acceleration (boxed version), I went to Las Vegas and got over 200 fps with the default settings, default scenery and aircraft.  Then I installed GEX (which replaces the default scenery with more optimized textures) and got up to 300 fps.  Then I started adding aircraft and scenery addons and things went south immediately.  There is no solution for an OOM in FSX-SE or FSX as Microsoft only gave us 4GB's of VAS per 32-bit app (if you have a 64-bit OS).  If you run FSUIPC, you can go into logging and log the amount of VAS available at takeoff and when the flight ends.  It provides a detailed report of the flight.  Here's a report I saved from a flight using FSDT KLAX, Orbx KSAN in the PMDG738:

Spoiler

469 --- All links checked okay
      469 -------------------------------------------------------------------
      469 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay
      469 Trying to use SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07
      469 Opened separate AI Traffic client okay
     2141 Running in "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", Version: 10.0.61637.0 (SimConnect: 10.0.61259.0)
     2141 Initialising SimConnect data requests now
     2141 FSUIPC Menu entry added
     2156 G:\FSX\FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.FLT
     2156 G:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\Aircreation_582SL\Aircreation_582SL.AIR
     2547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3607800
    25594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3505232
    32344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3499712
    42344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3501248
    48594 G:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG 737-800NGX WL\B737-800WL.AIR
    67906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3249100
    72406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 3239372
    73891 Weather Mode now = Real World
    82344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2829912
    92531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2894572
   110719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2866788
   112344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2500024
   122531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2296772
   132438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 2101628
   142594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1890984
   152406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1799860
   155469 Aircraft loaded: running normally now ...
   155469 User Aircraft ID 1 supplied, now being used
   156125 System time = 17/04/2017 17:50:15, Simulator time = 14:47:42 (21:47Z)
   156125 Aircraft="PMDG 737-800NGX PMDG House Winglets"
   162438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1313168
   164250 Starting everything now ...
   165422 Advanced Weather Interface Enabled
   172453 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1325456
   182516 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1321168
   212859 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 57 secs = 11.1 fps
   212859    Max AI traffic was 302 aircraft (Deleted 0)
   222781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1332376
   232781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1332032
   242781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1331740
   252781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1331324
   262719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1318224
   272719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269096
   282797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1219960
   292797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1216592
   302859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1189868
   312828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1110668
   322844 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1212612
   332891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1149148
   342906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1178092
   352953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1179164
   373031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1195760
   383047 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1183644
   393078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1175124
   403109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171772
   413125 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1145828
   423156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169660
   433188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169724
   453250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169704
   483375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169748
   493391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169768
   503406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1168288
   533500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1169752
   543563 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171960
   553625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1143596
   563625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1134168
   573703 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1122708
   583734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1099632
   593750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1087340
   603781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1171632
   613813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1199936
   623828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269868
   633891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1210688
   643938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1265076
   653938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1259416
   663984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1256216
   674000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1254812
   684031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1253608
   694094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1254048
   704109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1252928
   714156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1322944
   724188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1320692
   734219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1315980
   744250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1315452
   754281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1316512
   764328 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1320300
   774375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1326176
   784406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1305176
   794438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1302988
   804484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1269128
   814484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1228036
   824516 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1190896
   834547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1208428
   844594 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1210000
   854641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1209384
   864672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1212356
   874719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1311112
   884750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1316700
   894797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1292792
   904828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1518232
   914844 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1519632
   934922 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1460332
   944938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1362764
   954969 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1368060
   965000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1368768
   975031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1363768
   985063 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1365908
  1005109 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1395956
  1025188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1422312
  1035203 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1521724
  1045234 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1502940
  1055266 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1543652
  1075313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1546336
  1095375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1552796
  1105406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1552788
  1125469 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1551736
  1155563 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555020
  1185641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1557248
  1195672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555852
  1205688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1494164
  1215734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555300
  1245813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1553920
  1285938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1544112
  1295953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1553116
  1306000 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1555880
  1316031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1545964
  1326047 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1517240
  1336078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1557472
  1366188 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1547560
  1376219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1515888
  1386250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1494980
  1396281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1515884
  1406313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1554672
  1506609 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1499524
  1516625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1544512
  1536688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1603108
  1546703 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1635708
  1556734 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1633980
  1566766 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1609500
  1576797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1629752
  1606859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1626552
  1616906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1627408
  1626953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1632088
  1636953 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1520928
  1646984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1568716
  1657016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1536052
  1667063 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566352
  1677094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1574984
  1687125 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1569384
  1737281 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1567616
  1757328 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1568128
  1767359 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1514212
  1777391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566708
  1787406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1565256
  1797438 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1537652
  1807500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1558008
  1817531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1566536
  1836719 *** G3D bad pointer trapped and crash prevented ***
  1837578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1563064
  1838500 *** G3D bad pointer trapped and crash prevented ***
  1847625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1164612
  1857672 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1165300
  1877750 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1162416
  1897813 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1131916
  1907859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1129792
  1917875 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1098524
  1927922 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1207672
  1937969 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1072496
  1948016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1086272
  1958094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1082964
  1968156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1079400
  1978156 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1065908
  1988141 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1061704
  1998172 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1025980
  2008234 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 992772
  2018250 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 984428
  2028313 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 971644
  2038344 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 935284
  2048391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 930528
  2058469 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 985408
  2068484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 996616
  2078500 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1014080
  2088547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 991384
  2098578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 930576
  2108625 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 960260
  2118656 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 955988
  2128688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 956344
  2138719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 954932
  2148766 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 955032
  2158828 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 948420
  2168875 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 946480
  2178906 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 966024
  2188938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 990844
  2199016 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004840
  2209031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1002860
  2219094 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 994724
  2229141 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 940504
  2239203 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 969176
  2249219 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 965912
  2259297 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 991160
  2269297 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 997652
  2279375 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004360
  2289391 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1004600
  2299406 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1043660
  2309484 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015444
  2319531 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1019548
  2329547 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015276
  2339578 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044900
  2349641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044120
  2359641 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1046136
  2369688 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 971636
  2379719 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1045532
  2389781 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1015668
  2399797 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1010824
  2409859 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1011580
  2419891 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044352
  2429938 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1044872
  2439984 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1036176
  2450031 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 1087300
  2460078 Monitor IPC:024C (S32) = 938040
  2466094 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 2206 secs = 42.6 fps
  2466094    Max AI traffic was 309 aircraft (Deleted 0)
  2469844 === DLLStop called ...
  2469844 === Closing external processes we started ...
  2470859 === About to kill any Lua plug-ins still running ...
  2471000 === Closing global Lua thread
  2472000 === About to kill my timers ...
  2472203 === Restoring window procs ...
  2472203 === Unloading libraries ...
  2472203 === stopping other threads ...
  2472203 === ... Button scanning ...
  2472297 === ... Axis scanning ...
  2472406 === Releasing joystick devices ...
  2472406 === Freeing macro memory
  2472406 === Removing any offset overrides
  2472406 === Clearing any displays left
  2472406 === NOTE: not calling SimConnect_Close ...
  2472406 === AI slots deleted!
  2472406 === Freeing button memory ...
  2472406 === Closing my Windows ...
  2472406 === Freeing FS libraries ...
  2473406 === Closing devices ...
  2473406 === Closing the Log ... Bye Bye! ...
  2473406 System time = 17/04/2017 18:28:52, Simulator time = 15:25:24 (22:25Z)
  2473406 *** FSUIPC log file being closed
Minimum frame rate was 10.6 fps, Maximum was 161.8 fps
Minimum available memory recorded was 909Mb
Average frame rate for running time of 2263 secs = 41.8 fps
G3D fix: Passes 66390, Null pointers 0, Bad pointers 4, Separate instances 2
Maximum AI traffic for session was 309 aircraft
Memory managed: 1070 Allocs, 1070 Freed
********* FSUIPC Log file closed ***********

Note at the end it shows I had a minimum FPS of 10.6 and a maximum of 161.8 during the flight and the average fps was 41.8.  I also had a minimum of 900MB's of VAS remaining during the flight, more than enough to complete the whole flight.  That's all I needed to know.  I had over 40 fps during the flight and almost 1 GB of VAS remaining.  That's great performance IMHO.  It also provides a monitor on top of my screen that monitors the amount of VAS remaining.  Sometimes it will get down to only 500MB's and I get slightly worried but it tends to move up again depending on the scenery I am viewing at the time. 

I do not know what reduced the number of OOM's for you in FSX-SE but there is nothing a 32-bit application can do to prevent OOM's when you have an application that has tons of scenery textures and high definition aircraft (and payware weather like AS16).  I can fly for 2-3 hours and have no OOM's.  Anything longer and I must be careful with the landing as the system is eating it up.  There's nothing DTG can fix to make losing VAS go away.  This is the reason why many have moved over (I was going to say up but did not want to offend - LOL) to P3DV4 or X-Plane 11 (as examples) as they are 64 bit applications and, in a 64-bit environment, the amount of VAS for each application if over 7 terabytes or basically unlimited as no one has 7 TB drives yet.  So, no OOM's for them and pretty smooth performance too if you don't max everything out.

We have had issues with OOM's ever since FSX was first released only we were really knowledgeable at first of the VAS or large address aware switches which provided us 3GB's of VAS instead of 2.  The days when FSX was first released were frustrating as we could barely do anything with only 2GB's of VAS.  Now, we are having issues with 4GB's of VAS because developer's have added even more eye-candy to their products because of the massive amount of VAS we have with 64-bit OS's - 4 GB's.  

So, if you have not had many OOM's (or none) since using FSX-SE, you are very fortunate.  Believe me they have no secret fix.

I would have gotten FSX-SE but back in the 90's when Steam was first released, I joined Steam to play some games.  Had to enter my credit card info to join.  Within an hour, my credit card provider called (a human) and asked if I had bought any games.  I said no, just signed up.  She said my card was being charged $50 every minute for a game.  She cancelled my card and issued me a new one and I left Steam.  I realize security has gotten better since over 20 years ago but it gave me a bad taste for joining Steam.  I will, of course, join when I no longer have the boxed version of FSX. 

Best regards,

Jim