iankb

You seem to have missed the point. A Windows 7 desktop has a Start Menu, not the ability to switch to a Metro Start Menu.

Where Microsoft went wrong was to assume that all users should be restricted to the operating system required for a tablet. I thing they should have provided both a Win7-style desktop and a Metro desktop, with the option to switch between the two, and with the option to choose which to start with. Personally, I quite like the Metro-style of reading the news, in a full-screen window without the normal clutter of a Windows Internet browser. But I can't see why I couldn't have started that app from an old style Start menu. The other issue with the Metro interface is that it doesn't appear to be able to handle multiple screens. When you switch to Metro, it leaves the secondary screen(s) on the standard desktop. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Pity they haven't done that with Microsoft Office. It's getting worse on every release!

Users who don't like Apple's constraints in iOS will jailbreak their iDevices. Users who don't like the lack of a Start Menu in Windows 8 will add third-party products to recreate it. Both manufacturers learn by their users' experience, and will rectify their OS in a future release. It's just a shame that they get it so obviously wrong in the first place. As to Windows 8, the performance is good, and you can work round the absence of a Start Menu. Search for 'Control Panel' and add a shortcut to it on your desktop. Then build up a set of nested folders containing shortcuts to replace your Start Menu. And with Hyper-V built in, and with my 32GB of memory, Windows 8 could be quite useful. However, this computer is a test machine, and I still have three other computers running Windows 7.

Mine too, although I'm not sure I've had any updates at all!

I've found the same problem, with an Nvidia GTX 680 and two monitors. It does switch back to a single monitor, but at the minimum resolution. I have to disable one monitor to bring it up in native resolution. X-Plane 10 has no problem, so it isn't a native Windows 8 problem. One can only hope that Nividia can work round the problem with their driver, since nobody's going to change FSX.

Flight.exe doesn't like the /3GB switch on the command line. Is there some other way I should be applying this switch, or have they removed it from the final release?

My fear is that they will try and make their money by releasing a new aircraft every month or two, rather than add the missing functionality such as a working radio stack, AI traffic, etc, etc.My only hope is that they think they can develop the product a lot more before they allow third-party developers on board, rather than just a wish to keep all the income for themselves.What surprises me is the small area that they've landscaped, since they've added very little detail on top of what they could generate from readily-available terrain data. It makes me think that we may only ever get islands, since they require a lot less real-time rendering than land that extends to the horizon in all directions.

Just read the interview with Joshua Howard.Looks like it's worse than I thought.

I think Microsoft have been eyeing the Apple model with their AppStore, and the massive profits that they have been making from other developers' efforts.Expect third-party developers to only be able to release via the Microsoft store, for Microsoft to take 30% of the proceeds, and for developers to have to buy a licence, to force developers to charge for their products.It seems an obvious direction for Microsoft to go in, and will keep the commercial developers of add-ons happy.