I wonder how much desktop background screenshots will affect performence in FS9? I do understand that they take up memory and it's not fully optimal to have them. But still I would prefer them over the dull monocolored screen. Befotre my reinstall of Win I used shoots fromhttp://community.webshots.com/Can I do it again without noticable performence loss?

of course. they affect nothing

Thoretically they do use up some video ram. I don't think it is much though. I am a performance freak and do some things that might make no difference but I do it anyway like using no desktop wallpaper, and turning off the print spooler and explorer.exe from the task manager. to get back maybe 20 mb of ram. I don't know anybody else that turns off explorer but I have been doing it for a long time with no problem (you can start any program including restart explorer when you finish flying from the task manager in XP).

I tried shutting off explorer.exe when flying FS, but didn't really notice any performance improvement. Have you seen a boost from it?KP

On my current AMD64 3700 San Diego, 2gig ram, 6600 video card, Asus A8nsli deluxe I don't notice a lot of difference. On my old Pentium III computer and my laptop the difference is more noticeable. Why turn it off if you have a strong relatively up to date computer? Well I see people (including myself) turning off all kinds of services just to get back 1 or 2 megs of ram (if even that much) while explorer.exe is using as I am looking at it this moment 17 mb of ram, and print spooler 3.7 mb. It's not any silver bullet thats going to solve all performance problems but it may help, especially if you are running Active sky, Fraps,or any other FS related programs in the background. As I said I try to turn off everything possible. The way I start FS is as follows:1. Restart computer before every session.2. Open Task manager and close explorer,print spooler,anything else you don't need by ending processes. Don't be afraid of the warningas everything will come back on when you restart the computer.3. Now on the task manager click file-New task, a box opens up that says "create new task".Click browse. An explorer box opens up where you can browse for the exe of any program on your computer. Go to your FS9 folder (usually C:program filesmicrosoft gamesfs9) and find the FS9.exe file. Doubleclick it. The pathway will now be in the "Create new task" box. Click ok. Fs will start. Quickly click X to close the task manager. Now fly. If all this sounds like a mission. You only do it once. The pathway will stay in the "Create New Task" as long as you don't clear History.4. After flying, close FS.Hit ctrl alt delete to open the task manager. File-New task. The "Create new task" box opens. Clear the box and type explorer, click ok. You are back to youre desktop. When you want to fly again. Use the same method but both FS and exolorer will be in the "create new task" box to choose from.5. If you run Active sky or other programs with FS they can be started before you close explorer. Or with the method above before you start FS.