Help opening .air files

[aeromed202]

Hi all. I recently had to bury my ancient computer with Windows 7 and am now trying to acclimate to Windows 10. Fortunately FS2004 was not on the C: drive so I have the whole thing available to migrate over which I believe I have done fairly well. However I did lose all my peripheral programs including something to open .air files. So far I've had no luck finding anything that works and was wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions, preferably with where I could download from. Thanks for any help.

P.S. While I'm here, a strange consequence of my new OS is that every instance of a / in a notepad file has been replaced with a W with a strikeout line through it. The file is still read properly but looks strange. Any ideas why this happened and how to fix it?

[Shessi]

HI A,
It's possible that you could run your Fs2004 install from the old HDD, by putting it in an external HDD cradle, and USB to your new pc. Using the USB 3.0 port that should provide more than enough data through-put to sim Fs2004 with. Yes, again the other progs still wouldn't work, but may have saved time and space.

Re-Airfiles. No need to find anything, it's already on your Win10 pc.

Right mouse click on an airfile file and when the drop down displays instead of choosing 'open', look further down and click on 'open with'. The drop down menu will give you choices but prob not the right one (Notepad required). At the bottom of that list is 'choose another app', click on that and then a short list appears, go again to the bottom and the last thing is more apps....(god this is painful M$!!). Click on that and then an alphabetical list comes up, scroll down and choose 'Notepad' (by default Windows sets your choice as the default app for this type of file), click on OK, and away ye go!!

Yes, there are other apps that will do it, but notepad is the simplest and best as it doesn't mess around with the file when saving.....phewww!!

There isn't a 'notepad' file as such, it's just a simple text file i.e x.txt. I think the reason for the oddity happening is because Win10 encodes the text file in a UTF-8 standard, and the airfile may have been encoded in a different format, though I thought Win7 would be the same??

Try saving the airfile with a different encoding such as ANSI ( a choice right at the bottom, when you choose save as type), this may correct the display of the characters.

If that doesn't work, and the airfiles still function ok, and no-one else has a bright idea...just leave it alone...ha ha

Cheers

Shessi

[Sbob]

You're looking for AirEd.

You should be able to find it at Flightsim.com, AVSIM.com, or even here ( I haven't checked).

Once you have AirEd installed (its really basic), right click any .air file, choose "Open with" and AirEd and check the "always" or "open all file types" option (its been a long time since I installed it). That should do it.

[Allen]

AirEd Version 1.52.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...49&linkid=3142

Aircraft Airfile Manager V2.2. It has some data for entries that AirEd just doesn't know what to do with for FS04/FSX.
https://simviation.com/1/search?subm...ager&x=20&y=12

There is also a new version of Aircraft Airfile Manager made for FS2020 around but never found a non join walled link to it to know if Aircraft Airfile Manager for FS2020 can be of use to FS04/FSX users.

Also AirWrench is free.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...6&linkid=29950

[aeromed202]

Thanks so much, AirEd was the one I had before which worked fine. However after downloading I don't remember what to do with it so it becomes available to open air files. I just moved the whole package to new file in the same drive where FS sits but it hasn't shown up in the apps/programs list when I try to open the air file. What am I doing wrong?

[Mick]

Well, AirEd's instructions just say "Just unzip everything to a directory and you're ready to run." There might be one more step to do.

Do that (the instructions) and then click on the Air file you want to open. I don't remember if it just opens with AirEd the first time you use it. If not, right click on the Air File to get a list of suggested programs to select from. If AirEd isn't on that list (it probably won't be) you'll see an option to choose a different program. Click to do that and navigate to the folder you put AirEd in. Leave the box checked to always open this type of file with this program. That little process will register AirEd as the default program and from then on all you have to do is click on an Air file and it will open in AirEd.

[aeromed202]

So it's not on the list of suggested programs and there's no option to navigate to a folder, it only suggests to find something in the Microsoft store. I appear to be stumped.

[UncleTgt]

You need to change your app preferences

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...rosoft%20Store.

[Allen]

In the "How do you want to open this file? popup click the "More Apps ↓" Now go down the list to the vary end and there should be some text that says "Look for another app on this PC" Click it and it will open a new window. In this window go to the place you have AirEd and select the AirEd.exe. This should cause Windows to make AirEd the default "app" to open all .air files with.

[aeromed202]

Thanks but still no joy. It worked with W7 but not not now. I'm thinking it might have something to do with it not being an App, which W10 is made to work with.

[Deathwind]

I ran cfs2 on windows 10 and 11 and used aired as well. Go to the pharmacy ask for a jar of fairy dust because they keep it behind the counter due to security reasons. It’s about $300 a jar because it’s in limited supply and some pharmacy’s may not have it stock at all times. Just sprinkle a dab on the key and another on the monitor and poof you can run anything. It can even turn into your date for the night. Well worth the money.

[aeromed202]

Sorry Allen but where would one find "How do you want to open this file?"?

[Allen]

Double click and wait for the "How do you want to open this file?" popup or right click Open With and wait for the popup.

[aeromed202]

This is what I see. No way to select AirEd or point to a folder.

[Allen]

Okay quite odd and I'm going to say something sound real dumb but this is the Microsoft Lose 10 so...

Is the text just white and can't be seen?



Can you click in the area that the text should be and see of expands?

[UncleTgt]

This is what I see. No way to select AirEd or point to a folder.

As I posted above, your Windows 10 is set up with the "recommended" settings, which is to only allow programmes from the MS Store.

If you change your app settings, you should then be able to install & run stuff from other sources as well...

The link I posted says...

Select Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features.

Under Installing apps, select one of the available options.

To stop seeing app recommendations, select either Allow apps from anywhere or Turn off app recommendations (options vary by Windows version).

Hope this helps.

[aeromed202]

Eureka!! The text was indeed "whited" out. When I clicked in that area the list expanded and an option to choose a program folder also appeared. I went to where AirEd was patiently waiting and made the change and now all is well. Thanks so much for staying with me on this little journey. I'll tinker with colors to make that text visible for other purposes. Learning the quirks of W10 has been maddening. so I may be back when another conundrum is discovered...

[Mick]

So it's not on the list of suggested programs and there's no option to navigate to a folder, it only suggests to find something in the Microsoft store. I appear to be stumped.

In Wn10 and every previous Windows version that I've used you have the option to search for a program. It might look slightly different in the different Windows versions but this is how it works in Win10.
Right click on the Air file and select Open With.
On the box that pops up select More Aps.
Scroll down to the bottom and select Look For Another Ap On This PC.
Navigate to AirEd and select it with the box Always Use This Ap To Open Air Files checked.
That will register AirEd as the default program for Air files and after that all you have to do is click on an Air file and it will open in AirEd.