Thank you very much for your help with the missing icon, it now shows up on my task bar.
However, I still have this problem - when I start FSX, the screen goes black for about 15-20 seconds and then the aircraft appears on the runway as it should.
However, if I press Alt to bring up the top menu (change settings, etc) the screen goes black again. The only way I can get the aircraft back again is to press Esc. Now if I try the settings menu again, the same black screen appears. It doesn't seem to matter what settings option I choose, the screen just goes black.
Any suggestions?
Jim
Jim