Windows 10 & FSX

[Aircanuck]

Presently running Windows 7 O/S with FSX Acce ( call me lazy/stubborn ) .... curious if I upgraded to Windows 10 how much tweaking is involved to run FSX and would I see any uptick in performance ?? As for Flightsim 2020 , I have dispatched an email to accounting (aka , the better half ) and a new computer system and monitor may be "considered" once the new sim has been released later this year.

[Priller]

I find that any sim runs better on Windows 10 compared to Windows 7. Especially the modern 64 bit sims like Prepar3D v4.x and DCS. I did not have to tweak at all.

Priller

[ratty]

I've been running FSX:SE under Windows 10 with no problems at all. Can't speak for FSX Acceleration. Performance was about the same as under Win 7.

[falcon409]

Been running FSX/Accel on Win10 for many years now. Any problems I had were more due to pilot error than anything inherent with Win10.

[Bomber_12th]

I just recently got Windows 10 a few months ago. The only issue I ran into was when trying to activate "Acceleration", though all it took was a quick registry edit which I found right away with a Google search (seems to be a common problem, easily fixed).

[binarkansas]

I can second what Falcon 409 said. A few months ago, upgraded to Windows 10 and FSX Acceleration works as good as ever. A computer guru uncle was visiting and he did it for me. I doubt I'd had enough nerve to try it by myself.

BB

[mrogers]

Yes, ditto what Bomber 12 and Falcon 409 said. I have FSX Acc and Win 10 and all works excellently.

[Aircanuck]

Appreciate the comments

Cheers

[awstub]

There are many different versions of Windows 10 to choose from. For my new system, I decided to go with Windows 10 Professional for Workstations and it is running FSXA and P3Dv4 with no issues at all.

[PHo17]

I changed from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro (free update from MS pages) in January 2020. Haven't found any differences running FSX (Gold edition).

[expat]

Advise please.

Am very happy with P3Dv4.5 on a Win 7 Pro O/S - except of course MS support is no longer there and eventually I won't be able to put off the upgrade.

I do recall Falcon maybe and others a while back now having major hair tearing with Windows 10 and FSX with all sorts of user settings being overriden and downloads being disrupted, etc. There were some MS services you needed to turn off, but maybe everyone figured it out and it's now no big deal.

My question - embarrassed to ask - is if I upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, does it wipe everything, payware, freeware, saved family photos and other irreplaceable stuff from my hard drives forever? Will I need to find 3-4 terra bytes of flash drive and spend a month copying and pasting it all as a backup before upgrading (suspect the answer may be "no" but obviously interested to hear why).

Thanks guys!

[Jafo]

Advise please.

My question - embarrassed to ask - is if I upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, does it wipe everything, payware, freeware, saved family photos and other irreplaceable stuff from my hard drives forever? Will I need to find 3-4 terra bytes of flash drive and spend a month copying and pasting it all as a backup before upgrading (suspect the answer may be "no" but obviously interested to hear why).

Thanks guys!

Short answer is...10 has been known [in the past] to wipe all personal files etc in a simple 'update'.
Early adoption of 10 was anything BUT painless, and now and then people still strike hurdles.

That being said, by and large 'upgrading' to 10 is now possibly the 'best' update process MS has managed to achieve [but that bar is set low].

Download the media creation tool....load the installer onto an 8gig USB....and run it from within Win 7 [not by boot order] and maybe 99 times out of 100 it'll be painless.

BUT...

As with anything....if it's seriously IMPORTANT to you.....BACK IT UP.
That is always a given...

[Bruce66]

Well, I am going to stick my oar in here - I have just aquired a new computer with W10 as I knew it would be inevitable. I stress here that I have not upgraded my old computer to W10, it still has W7 and all my files etc as a backup.

For me changing to W10 with FSX-SE (not Acceleration mind you) has been a bit of a living nightmare! I have very limited time to access my computer due to family care issues so I experience constant interuptions in the process. I have kept notes along the way to keep errors to a minimum but I have still come accross several headaches.

The first and most annoying/worrying was when FSX (and all my other Steam products) failed to work after I logged in to Steam and confirmed I was the owner of the new computer. Granted after three tries and several reboots it worked and the first hurdle was crossed.

My next mega nightmare was with my controllers which no longer worked in W10. I was worried something in the transfer had damaged them but the problem turned out to be a rediculous and easy one. A freind told me he runs ALL his programs in W10 as an Administrator which I never had to do in W7. This fixed part of my controller problem but, as I was a Thrustmaster TARGET user I was very dissapointed to discover that TARGET will not work in W10 so I lost all my controller profiles for all my airplanes.

The most recent issue which I have not fully nailed down yet is with FSX-SE resetting my controller sensitivities and null zones to default when I restart my computer. This never happened with W7 and it took me ages to figure out what was happening. I suspect but am not sure that this is a 'run as Administrator' issue as well. Time will tell.

Add to this the frustrations of having to learn those small but improtant differences in the way W10 functions and losing some of my trusted old programs like Office 2002 and I have not had a happy transfer to W10. I know it is inevitable and I recall the same or similar issues when I finally switched from XP to W7 and from 3.1 to XP before that but I sincerly hope I pass on before the next enforced OS upgrade catches up with me!

[Daube]

Advise please.

Am very happy with P3Dv4.5 on a Win 7 Pro O/S - except of course MS support is no longer there and eventually I won't be able to put off the upgrade.

I do recall Falcon maybe and others a while back now having major hair tearing with Windows 10 and FSX with all sorts of user settings being overriden and downloads being disrupted, etc. There were some MS services you needed to turn off, but maybe everyone figured it out and it's now no big deal.

My question - embarrassed to ask - is if I upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, does it wipe everything, payware, freeware, saved family photos and other irreplaceable stuff from my hard drives forever? Will I need to find 3-4 terra bytes of flash drive and spend a month copying and pasting it all as a backup before upgrading (suspect the answer may be "no" but obviously interested to hear why).

Thanks guys!

If you really have *that* much data in family photos and other very important item, then I would STRONGLY advise you to save a copy (or several) of them anywhere before these hardrives start to fail.
Paywares and freewares are not that important.
But for your family pictures, you might want to start looking at cloud-based solutions, like OneDrive or Google Drive for example.
I have suscribed to Office 365 a few years ago. That has increased my OneDrive available storage space to one Terrabyte. More than enough to store all my precious pictures, and a few other "important" files.
Then I don't care what happens to my hardrives or SSDs anymore.

Concerning the upgrade to Win10, in my case it didn't wipe any file that I can remember, but I basically saved all the important ones before upgrading.
As Jafo said, don't upgrade before all of your files are saved somewhere EXTERNAL to your computer.

[Daube]

The most recent issue which I have not fully nailed down yet is with FSX-SE resetting my controller sensitivities and null zones to default when I restart my computer. This never happened with W7 and it took me ages to figure out what was happening. I suspect but am not sure that this is a 'run as Administrator' issue as well. Time will tell.

Well, this happened to me many times in W7, and at that time the solution was already to run FSX as an administrator (else it wouldn't even save the settings, actually).

Add to this the frustrations of having to learn those small but improtant differences in the way W10 functions and losing some of my trusted old programs like Office 2002 and I have not had a happy transfer to W10. I know it is inevitable and I recall the same or similar issues when I finally switched from XP to W7 and from 3.1 to XP before that but I sincerly hope I pass on before the next enforced OS upgrade catches up with me!

I understand the problem for your office 2002.
My usage of office tools (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) was very limited, then I was happy enough with the free online office tools for a while. For Outlook and emails in general, I have always been using ONLY the web outlook interface anyways...
I switched to office 365 (suscription, around 60 dollars per year?) mostly because I needed more storage space in OneDrive

[wombat666]

I've been less than impressed with W10 but decided to load it in my just completed new build.
Installing it from USB was quite simple, with FSX-SE, P3Dv3, P3Dv4.5 and XP-11 all running without a hitch.
However (there's always 'however') several programs either crashed, were over run by W10 crap default programs, or just ceased to load.
The most annoying and frequent hassles were with several of my graphic programs, all of which were current (2020) releases and used frequently for photography.
So yes, it seems as if the Flight Sims work fine, as do my Race Sims.

Certainly do not risk losing any important files, a 4TB external drive is not expensive and will save any anguish if W10 goes feral.

In my case, I'm adding a new 2TB M2 drive and a new 1600W PS, then reverting to W7, after having checked all the W10 options and finding none that are available without the MS 'Crapware'!
I don't need or want Edge, Cortina, MS Paint (meh!) and the entire collection of bloatware rubbish that is me causing problems.



JFTR, it has been literally years since I've had a BSOD.......over the past couple of weeks W10 has delivered decades worth!

[huub vink]

As I considered updating to Windows10 was unavoidable, I must have been one of the first to upgrade my Windows7 computer to Windows10 I have never regretted this decision. I had several FS9 installs and a huge FSXA install. They all remained running without any problems and as already mentioned before I actually had the feeling FSX was running better with Windows10.
Over the years I had some minor problems with updates which didn't really work as advertised, but I never lost any data. Especially in the early days of Windows10 I had some minor issues with non-32 bits programs which Windows10 didn't really liked.

After I made the switch successfully, I decided to upgrade my wife's Windows8 machine. Again it when smooth as advertised and has never caused any issues. As my wife runs only basic programs, which are not very demanding on memory and graphics, I didn't expect anything different

I recently purchased a new machine which had Windows10 from the start. It works slightly different than the machines which had the free update. But in general is't very stable and runs FSX and FS9 without any problems. I have invested in SSD disk space so FSX and FS9 start very quick, which is the biggest improvement....

Cheers,
Huub

[PHo17]

Advise please.

...
My question - embarrassed to ask - is if I upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, does it wipe everything, payware, freeware, saved family photos and other irreplaceable stuff from my hard drives forever? Will I need to find 3-4 terra bytes of flash drive and spend a month copying and pasting it all as a backup before upgrading (suspect the answer may be "no" but obviously interested to hear why).

Mine didn't wipe anything except some old apps which don't run in W10 (this was informed while the install). Actually the whole W7 is there still in case I'd like to go back (I won't do). The only problem was that W10 lost my joystick (CH Fighterstick USB) and I had to install it again. No big deal. Of course I cannot guarantee anything. I didn't have any bigger problems - others may have, but what I have heard quite seldom.

As told here already it is always wise to have backup (changing the OS or not). My payware, freeware and personal stuff went easily into my 1TB external HDD. Didn't take a whole day just a couple of hours. I have been completing the backup now and then always when necessary. I don't use any backup programs but backup the folder structure as it is. Then it is easy to find anything if I delete something by accident for example.

I think that only those things that exist nowhere else need to be backed up. Most of my payware is to be found on CDs and Internet shops where I bought them and are easily installed again if they would disappear from my PC. Most of my freeware is to be found on Internet's FS sites again if necessary.

[Priller]

Windows 10 update causing files to be deleted is nothing else than a hoax/fake news. It happened once, with build 1803 and was rectified pretty quickly. Moreover, updating from Windows 7 or 8 to 10 is a bad idea. Go for a clean install. A bit more work, but well worth the effort. It gives you a clean and crisp install that you can tweak to your liking. (if you know your way around a windows install that is) As for bloatware or superfluous software included in Windows 10, you can easily remove it through "removing windows features" in the control panel. All of the problems I read about Windows 10 is usually voiced by people who refuse to embrace change and progress. They can always go back to Windows 3.1... I have fond memories about Windows 3.1 and NT 4.0 myself, but older windows version are exactly that: things of the past. And those of us who plan on running the upcoming M$ flightsim: get ready for Windows 10. It will run on nothing else! Jeebus!! Priller

[awstub]

I would like to point out that not all Windows 10 operating systems are equal..... so do a little bit of research and pick the best one for your needs.

Personally, I decided to install the newer "Windows 10 Professional for Workstations" on my new system because it is specifically intended for high end systems.

I paid $21.05 for the installation media (USB thumb drive) and $35.00 for one license (sent via e-mail) and it installed flawlessly and has given me no issues so far.

This being said, even if it were to have a catastrophic problem, I make sure I regularly backup everything important to an external location.

[Jafo]

All of the ********** I read about Windows 10 is usually voiced by people who refuse to embrace change and progress. They can always go back to Windows 3.1...


Priller

My '**********' comes from clean and/or upgrade installs numbering 5 to date. 1 was 100% painless, 2 very definitely were not.
I still have a 10 ver that refuses to update....even the forced ones don't ...so it's going to be an install over itself by a later ver. Clean is NOT an option.

I like the quote 'fake news' - tell that to the people who suffered, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

And before anyone says 'he's an ignorant moron....hasn't a clue'....my entry into computers was in 1969, punch cards and all....;p

Back on topic.... whatever you do, DO NOT get into any early release program. Forced updates is enough of a beta guinea-pig process for Joe Average to cope with....

[AussieMan]

jafo, I am a Windows Insider and have been since Windows 8. I had the first Alpha version of that OS right through to the full release version. Then along came W10 Alpha 1 and I have been using W10 since then. Being an Insider I am subject to more updates as we get beta versions of a projected update. I may get an update once a week or maybe once a month but with each operating system update not once have I lost any settings or data.

My only problem has been a ham fisted "technician" who I gave my computer to in order to find and fix a problem. He fixed the problem ok but in the process wiped a hard drive that had a partition with all my payware aircraft and scenery.

So in a nutshell W10 is no problem to use.

[Jafo]

First observed failing of 10 was a continuous loss of Network adapters....last observed was Edge failing to open/run....and ya gotta hand it to MS.....to fail with their own app...;p

[mrogers]

You have the option of going back to Windows 3.1, or some other stone age Windows version Jafo, if you don't like W10.
That was in the early days of W10 which has now been resolved. Other versions of Windows had their problems early on too so W10 isn't the only one.
I did have a few initial problems for a start when starting out with a new fresh install of W10, but since then and with updates I've had no problems so no big deal at all.

[modelr]

I have built my own desktops since WIN95, usually installing new Windows versions for each build. None of these were "Top of the Line" builds, although they were all built for flightsim use. When WIN10 was announced as a free update, I was using WIN7.5, 64bit. As I was getting ready to start purchasing components for my next build, I decided to go ahead and try it. Expecting trouble, I backed everything up to an external HDD. I was actually following along with the threads here on SOH at the time about others info on WIN10, especially Texnetcop's info. (did I spell that right?) As it turned out, the update went nearly flawlessly, no loss of info or programs, except those that would not work under WIN10, like others have mentioned. They were actually saved in a separate folder by WIN10, in case I wanted to switch back. My WIN7.5 was saved in another folder. Never went back. I still have that old tower in the closet, and have used it a couple times for odd things. Still works fine. All of my flightsim programs worked fine.

My present version is WIN10 PRO, purchased 3 builds ago. As WIN10 CAN BE moved to new builds without repurchasing, unlike as required for older WIN programs, I have had no real problems that weren't my own fault. I have FS9, (5 versions, including the "Golden Wings" and "Silver Wings" versions,) FSX, and P3Dv1, v2, v3, and v4.5, all working fine. Each major version is on it's own HDD, with the P3Dv3 & P3Dv4xx being on a 238G SSD, with the Simobjects, and add-on folders being junction linked to a separate 1TB HDD, and all the scenery on 2x3TB HDDs. I have never had any problems with any of them, other than when ORBX changed from the older "FTX Central" to their present "ORBX Central." THAT was my biggest headache!! I was actually able to transfer my WIN10 Pro license to this latest build even though I changed hard drives, from HDD to SSD. A short phone call was all it took, explaining what I had done. The only thing I was told is that I would have to purchase another license if I was to fire up the old tower with the original HDD.

The auto update features are kept turned on, restarting when I am ready to shut down for the night, or immediately if not busy. I also keep the UAC turned OFF. I do have Norton Internet Security package(now 360) as well as "Malwarebytes" installed, and have never had any problems. (Yes, I have had intrusion attempts, always stopped by one or the other.)

I am NOT saying any one else hasn't had problems, but as many have mentioned, I myself have had no problems that can be blamed directly on WIN10. The interface is a little different, (actually a lot) and it takes some getting used to, but once learned, easy to work with. I find the "free update" version easier to get along with than my wife's pre-installed HP-OEM on her HP notebook.

I also have a Toshiba "Satellite" notebook that came with WIN7 that I updated to WIN10 HOME way back when, and it has been pretty much trouble free since. In fact, it just recently updated to build 1903, and so far, I like it. (This tower on WIN10 PRO is still build 1809.)

Just my .05 cents.