I am thinking of staying with v4.5 of P3D and downgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 7 64-bit.  Since my current flight sim set-up is working fine, I don't mind if I never upgrade P3D and its add-ons in this PC again. I'm also tired of running Microsoft's never ending anti-virus and upgrading wheel.

My mantra for this PC:



I am curious to see what your experience has been like using P3D with Windows 7 and add-ons from developers like Orbx, Milviz, Flysimware, Carenado, etc.  I have no interest in airliners (eg. PMDG or FSLabs). Thank you.

Yeah I hear you! I am actually done with Windows altogether. I am thinking about going back to ZX Spectrum operating system. Now THAT was a hoot! I am looking forward to reading everyone’s experience with it. 

I fly P3Dv4.5 HF3 with widows 7, with two other networked windows 7 computers for peripherals.  I use ORBX True Earth, Pilot2ATC, AS4, ASCA, OPUS, CLS2Sim, RXP GNS 530/430, a bunch of GoFlight modules and solely A2A aircraft.  I usually fly 3 or 4 times a week, 2 hours at a time.  I have not had a CTD in six months and have not had any issues of any seriousness in a very long time.

17 minutes ago, vp49p3 said:

I fly P3Dv4.5 HF3 with widows 7, with two other networked windows 7 computers for peripherals.  I use ORBX True Earth, Pilot2ATC, AS4, ASCA, OPUS, CLS2Sim, RXP GNS 530/430, a bunch of GoFlight modules and solely A2A aircraft.  I usually fly 3 or 4 times a week, 2 hours at a time.  I have not had a CTD in six months and have not had any issues of any seriousness in a very long time.

That's great news. Which version of Windows 7? Also, has Windows 7 completely stopped calling Microsoft for updates?

What kind of browser do you use and is it able to access YouTube? Thanks.

P.S. I use OpusFSI and True Earth also. And I also have AS4 and ASCA and was wondering if these would have any adverse effect on OpusFSI (for dynamic head movements and the camera only at the moment) but never got a reply back from the AS4/ASCA developers.

Edited April 28, 20215 yr by oneleg

Hi-I'm on W7 64 bit professional.  Windows alerts me to updates every now and then but I ignore them. I use Firefox latest version,

1 hour ago, oneleg said:

That's great news. Which version of Windows 7? Also, has Windows 7 completely stopped calling Microsoft for updates?

What kind of browser do you use and is it able to access YouTube? Thanks.

P.S. I use OpusFSI and True Earth also. And I also have AS4 and ASCA and was wondering if these would have any adverse effect on OpusFSI (for dynamic head movements and the camera only at the moment) but never got a reply back from the AS4/ASCA developers.

I use W7 Profesional 64 bit and Firefox.  YouTube comes in fine. Windows advises of available updates, but I ignore them. I use only the Opus buttkicker program, not dynamic head movements or any other Opus feature.  AS4 and ASCA have never interfered with Opus nor vice versa.

7 minutes ago, vp49p3 said:

Hi-I'm on W7 64 bit professional.  Windows alerts me to updates every now and then but I ignore them. I use Firefox latest version,

I use W7 Profesional 64 bit and Firefox.  YouTube comes in fine. Windows advises of available updates, but I ignore them. I use only the Opus buttkicker program, not dynamic head movements or any other Opus feature.  AS4 and ASCA have never interfered with Opus nor vice versa.

So Windows 7, having reached their end-of-life support, still has updates?  Are the updates optional and can the updates be permanently ignored?  What about the default anti-virus. Does it exhibit virus-like behavior  like in the most recent versions of Windows 10 (which can't be permanently disabled)?

I gave up on Firefox and went back to Chrome because Firefox also had continuous updates AND kept screwing up my setting preferences. Fortunately, Chromes updates preserves my settings and for the most part are transparent to me.

I am currently using Windows 7 Pro with P3d 4.5 with no problems. Other addons include active sky, pfpx, fs2crew, gsx l2, ultimate traffic live v1 and 2, tons of sceneries and aircraft from pmdg, Leonardo majestic etc. YouTube works well and there’s nothing I can’t do in 7 that I do on my 10 systems, except a maybe run dx12 software. 
I use Norton 360 and malwarebytes to make up for Microsoft not providing any more security updates. 

Edited April 28, 20215 yr by frogs

15 minutes ago, frogs said:

.... Microsoft not providing any more security updates. 

This is excellent news. Thank you.

I assume you're using the free version of Malwarebytes which only scans on demand. For Norton, are you able to *permanently* disable it (meaning it stays off even after several re-boots or shutdowns)? I used Norton and tried free versions of AVG and Avast anti-virus in Windows 10. My experience is that, like the latest version of the anti-virus in Win10, you can't permanently disable them.

Edited April 28, 20215 yr by oneleg

Would you like to elaborate what the problem is with your Windows 10 setup that makes you want to go back to Windows 7?

The updates in Win10 can be deferred, as you know.

49 minutes ago, oneleg said:

This is excellent news. Thank you.

I assume you're using the free version of Malwarebytes which only scans on demand. For Norton, are you able to *permanently* disable it (meaning it stays off even after several re-boots or shutdowns)? I used Norton and tried free versions of AVG and Avast anti-virus in Windows 10. My experience is that, like the latest version of the anti-virus in Win10, you can't permanently disable them.

I’m using the paid version of malwarebytes which allows me to simply close it before I start the sim. Wrt Norton 360 I have all functions loaded up on every startup however I simply stop the auto protect before I start the sim. This prevents it scanning my sim stuff while I’m using it ( I know there’s an option to exclude folders etc from Norton but I just disable it while I’m simming since I’m not doing anything otherwise which may leave me vulnerable to viruses )

23 minutes ago, Afterburner said:

Would you like to elaborate what the problem is with your Windows 10 setup that makes you want to go back to Windows 7?

The updates in Win10 can be deferred, as you know.

The problem is that disk access is slower.

For example:

The time it takes from first clicking the game icon to the ready-to-fly screen in P3Dv4.5.14 in my PC desktop:

Anti-virus enabled:
P3D v4x:  around 2 minutes and 10-20 seconds
FSX SE: around 50-55 seconds

Anti-virus disabled:
P3D v4x: around 1 minute and 5-10 seconds
FSX SE:  around 34-35 seconds

Yes, I know it can be deferred. But that's a maintenance-like to-do item that has to be remembered. Something I would rather not have to do periodically.  An annoyance, which in my mind should be avoidable. It's the same thing with temporarily disabling anti-virus and updates. I used to be able to permanently disable the anti-virus software and OS updates in earlier versions of Windows 10 using Windows Defender (now called Windows Security) and 3rd party anti-virus software. But apparently, this is no longer an option in more recent builds of the OS and anti-virus software. 

I just checked. With Norton 360 you can permanently disable auto protect.  

Just now, frogs said:

I just checked. With Norton 360 you can permanently disable auto protect.  

Please try rebooting and shutting down one or more times. Give it time. It might rise from the dead Lazarus like.

I've tried fiddling with the registry in several locations, kiosk type software (freezing drives as read-only), software automation (autohotkey), group policies, folder exclusions, etc.  I hope I'm mistaken and that anti-virus can in fact be permanently disabled in Win10.

46 minutes ago, oneleg said:

...the latest version of the anti-virus in Win10, you can't permanently disable them.

Windows 10 is some of the worst Malware ever produced, but we are stuck with it if we wish to use the latest apps (like P3Dv5 and its DX12).  As good as P3Dv4 is, v5 still offers advantages (and better performance).

It's easy to disable Windows Defender... you can do so permanently using a script that makes changes to the registry (and is easily reversible should you change your mind down the road). Download at Major Geeks

Or if you wish to have an easy to use app to quickly disable or enable Windows Defender, The Sordum Team offers Defender Control

The Sordum Team also offers Windows Update Blocker that I've used since I first installed Malware 10 Pro more than 2 1/2 years ago (yeah, I put it off as long as possible 🙂).  Given MS's affinity for trashing folk's computers with their updates, WUB is on "Disable" mode on my computers almost all the time.  I decide when to allow updates... as it should be!

1 minute ago, lownslo said:

Windows 10 is some of the worst Malware ever produced, but we are stuck with it if we wish to use the latest apps (like P3Dv5 and its DX12).  As good as P3Dv4 is, v5 still offers advantages (and better performance).

It's easy to disable Windows Defender... you can do so permanently using a script that makes changes to the registry (and is easily reversible should you change your mind down the road). Download at Major Geeks

Or if you wish to have an easy to use app to quickly disable or enable Windows Defender, The Sordum Team offers Defender Control

The Sordum Team also offers Windows Update Blocker that I've used since I first installed Malware 10 Pro more than 2 1/2 years ago (yeah, I put it off as long as possible 🙂).  Given MS's affinity for trashing folk's computers with their updates, WUB is on "Disable" mode on my computers almost all the time.  I decide when to allow updates... as it should be!

Windows Defender is now known as Windows Security in my setup. What is your OS build (I have 19041)? I've used such scripts previously in earlier OS builds of Windows 10 Pro. The scripts stopped working for me after an OS update. Example .reg script file:

---
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender]
"DisableAntiSpyware"=dword:00000001

---

I'm going to check the links you provided. Thank you.