captpete

First, let me thank everyone for their advice on getting started with add-ons. I did take the suggestions of Bert Pieke and Anthony31 and download the North American ORBX and the SF260. Both are great except their are several block out grey areas near the airport. Before I start describing my problem with FSX, I did try to get help from FSX support. I was unable to present my problem as they only had answers for previous questions (no new ones) OK, the problem I am having is after I start fsx and chose free flight and then an aircraft, airport, etc and OK everything and then click fly now. I am sitting on a runway looking out the cockpit window and I decide to activate the kneeboard and go to the checklist (actually it doesn't matter what I pick on the kneeboard). Two smaller screens pop up. One is the kneeboard with the checklist on it. The other, which starts half way down the kneeboard, is a screen showing the cockpit view again, but only the left hand side of the original view. Neither of the two new screens is functional. Nothing at all happens if I click on the kneeboard screen. But as I run the cursor over the top frame of the kneeboard where it is superimposed over the menu bar of the full screen cockpit view it will light up the words on the menu bar of the partial cockpit screen. I can change the size of the small cockpit screen somewhat and it will simultaneously change the size of the kneeboard. I cannot remove either of the two small screens, but I can still fly the aircraft on the big screen. All other functions on the menu bar work perfectly. I have to exit FSX to get rid of the two small screens.For a few seconds after FSX shuts down there is a black square on my computer screen the size of the partial cockpit screen and then it disappears. Any ideas what wrong and how to fix it?

I have had FSX for years and spent most of my time trying to fly the plane properly in a simulator. I only recently discovered the world of addons. I have spent hours on the internet, mostly reading about scenery. I am fascinated with the idea of making the sky, water, terrain, airports, etc, more realistic. But, the more I read, the more confused I got on how to do this in the right way. I am looking for help or suggestions on exactly what program or programs as of this date would give me a nice setup and how to go about installing them. I will most likely do most of my flying in North America. I have Intel® Core i7 - 3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz- 3.40 3.40 GHz 16.0 GB of RAM NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti and Windows 7 64 bit OS. I am sure there are several different setups that would work, but, I would rather build one based on people who are knowledgeable in this area. Thanks for any help you can give me.