Biffer

Thanks, Luis, pschllute and Jim. Yup ... running the sim' in windowed mode allowed me to get to the desktop and then back to the sim' again. Yaaaah! For what it's worth, I was already running as Administrator and with "disable desktop composition" and "disable visual themes". In the end, it turned out that assigning a dedicated core to FS9 made little or no difference to my frame rates, but then, sorting out the vagaries of FS2004 makes solving the Da Vinci code look like child's play. I've just about convinced myself to do a complete re-install of the sim', mostly due to problems with scenery, FSUIPC and other updates. I'll search the site for tips on the most painless way of doing this (I have a lot of stuff backed-up on pen drives), but I'm just looking forward to seeing all the problems and error messages melt away to oblivion. :rolleyes: :unsure: :huh: :lol:

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section ... but it's technical, and I do have Windows 7 installed, so ... My problem is that if I minimise FS9 to reach the Desktop, I can't get back to the sim' again, even though the FS9 icon is there in the Desktop toolbar. Double-clicking the icon does nothing, and there's no alternative but to close the sim' and reload again (a real pain!). This is very annoying for a couple of reasons; a lot of payware aircraft come with fuel & payload utilities that can't be reached from inside FS9, which means having to minimise the sim' and access via the Desktop - only once done, I can't get back to the sim' again. Also, I read a tip on here about assigning a dedicated core to run FS9 for those with dual-core processors (which I have). In order to assign a dedicated core the sim' must be running, then you have to do an Alt+Tab to the Desktop and run the Task Manager. Well, I can do that, no problem, but then - you guessed it - I can't get back to the sim' again ... and here's the thing; if you reload FS9, either it or Win.7 re-sets the changes you made to the core assignments, so you're back to square-one. Grrrrrrr!!!! Now, I have to say that I can't remember if I ever had this problem when I was running Win.XP, so it may or may not be a Win.7 glitch. In any case, I'd welcome any useful suggestions to work around this. Many thanks!

Hi All, I'm giving serious thought to completely updating my FS2004 scenery to achieve a more realistic/accurate geographical look. At the moment I use FS Global (Special Edition); FS Scene textures; Picnic grass textures; and some freeware water textures that I can't remember the names of. My problem - if you can call it a 'problem' - is that it's been years since I did any updating in this department. There's a bewildering range of new textures, meshes and other stuff out there that I've had no experience of, both payware and freeware. So, I'm seeking the community's advice: what combination of software do you use, or would you recommend, for the best compromise between realism and performance? Most of my 'flying' is done within the UK, continental Europe and New Zealand. Since we all know results depend on particular computer specs', here's mine:- OS: Windows 7, 32-bit, SP1; CPU: Intel Pentium D, dual-core, 3.00GHz; RAM: 2.00GB, single-channel DDR2; Graphics: 512MB, Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT. Thanks for taking the time to reply!