Hi. I use two monitirs for FS9 - one for the sim, the other for, well, other stuff, like FSNav. If I have FS9 as the active window on one and another window, say a command prompt or Windows Explorer window, open on the second, as soon as I click on the second window to make it active, FS9 minimises to the taskbar. I know this is normal behaviour, but can I prevent FS9 disappearing to the taskbar as soon as its window is not the active one?Thanks,Martin

Hi,Run FS04 in Windowed Mode.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

Hi Jim. Yes, that just pauses the sim rather than minimising it, true. The problem is that when I try to restore to full screen (I wouldn't want to be flying in window mode - very 'unaesthetic') I usually just end up with a black screen and a quaking cursor. This has been noted by others; I'm not sure of the cause or of the resolution. The only way to get the sim back it is to go into the display setup and enable/disable anti-aliasing (tip from this forum I think).This is all getting a bit 'heavy' though - all this work around and hassle. If only FSHotSFX had got their programming right none of this would be necessary. Payware too..M.

Hi,Run FS04 in Windowed Mode but maximized. And FS04 should not pause unless you have Pause on task switch enabled in FS04.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

Jim, If I come out of full screen view and into windowed mode, I can see the XP taskbar/system tray and the usual 'window frame' with the minimise/restore up/down/close buttons at the top right-hand corner. I get this whether I have the window maximised or not. Am I missing your point? Martin :-)

I think going to windowed mode is not an option, because most of the time I just get a black screen and a fluttering cursor when I try to go back to full screen mode. A search in this forum shows that I am not the only one with this problem. I have spent some time today trying to replace the video drivers for my Geforce 6800 card, but all of them seem to cause one problem or another in FS9 - either the problem as above, or a black screen at 'Create a Flight', instead of the rotating aircraft (another glitch noted by several on this forum).I have managed to get as far as using PsSuspend (from PsTools) to stop and then restart FSHotSfx - I have to do this via a Command Prompt screen on my second monitor, loaded before I start FS9. When I click on this, FS9 disappears to the taskbar, but I don't see any other way around this. I can restart FSHotSfx after landing in the same way.It would be better if I could work out how to activate the cmd prompts through a batch file, but this is proving very hard. Even better if I could work out how to run them from my 2nd. PC, which is networked to my FS9 PC, as running the script or command prompt from there might not cause FS9 to minimise to the task bar..Vague suspicions that this thread will be voted AVSIM's dullest of 2006, but I really do want to get this sorted out!!M.

Hi,No that is correct. Just click on the restore up button. Yes, that bar will no go away. Then FS04 will run constantly in maximized windowed mode. Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

Thanks Jim, but I don't want to fly FS with the taskbar visible like that. The easiest option would be to stop FSHotSfx loading with FS9 altogether, but I'd really miss the great sound effects. I'm first going to try to see if I can get the PsSuspend command windows to work from another PC, which is networked to my FS9 PC. If I can, maybe FS9 will stay running when I activate the cmd window and not minimise itself. Otherwise, I am going to give up on this, I've spent so many hours trying to sort things out already! No replies now from FSHotSfx support and their forum seems not to be hosetd any more ...M.

Hi,It will never happen in Full screen mode. Windows will not allow this to happen. Only one Full Screen window can be show at a time.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development Team Active Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/AirSource Member: http://www.air-source.us/FSEconomy Member:http://www.fseconomy.com/

Hi Guy's.Why not simply right click on the task bar, and select properties, and check the box marked "hide the task bar", Then even in windowed mode you won't see the task bar unless you move your mouse down there, and it will then pop up, But as soon as you move your mouse away again, it will disappear.hows that then !

That solves half the problem. But I still have the border at the top of the screen of course. Don't think I can get rid of that if I am not flying in full screen mode.

FYI, one thing I find that can fix a black screen I sometimes get when switching between windowed and fullscreen mode is to go into the display settings and switch the color depth. (Say from 32 bit to 16 bit, click OK, then go back and switch it back.)But as mentioned, you can't run fullscreen and interact with stuff on the second monitor without causing FlightSim to minimize. You may be able to hide the menus in Windowed mode by changing HideMenuNormal to 1 in your FS9.cfg file. You'll still have the window titlebar though, and Windowed mode can cause popup windows in certain views to have a frame and titelbar. (You can disable that frame via a right click menu, at least till the popup window is closed.) On the other hand, in windowed mode you should be able to drag popup windows over to the second monitor."Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

I think that if I am going to get around the problems of FSHotSFx in the air, and still be able to use it on the gournd, I am going to have to try to make some kind of gause/switch which I can then install into the a/c panel. I've fiddled around with gauges before, putting old ones into new contexts, but have not created something like this from scratch. Should keep me occupied for a few weeks! If I suceed, I'll upload it to AVSIM!M.