moving from windows XP to 8

[jagl04]

Hi

I have some doubts about moving to windows 8. Should I have to re-install FSX? Have anyone of you experienced problems with FSX after moving to 8?

Thanks in advance

[WarHorse47]

Hi.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'moving.' Are you upgrading your existing operating system from XP to Win8, OR are you transferring all to a new computer with Win8? Either way, I can't help you there.

I can tell you that FSX runs fine under Win8. I did a clean install with my new computer almost a year ago, and have had no major issues. I did some reading and research beforehand and did the recommended install outside of the preferred location. In other words do not install FSX under C:\Program Files (x86) but instead create a new directory. Better yet follow the advice of others and install in a separate partition or another connected drive.

The one quirk with Win8 is the UAC, or User Account Control - which is just a fancy mechanism for administrative privileges. Win8 has a lot of additional administrative issues for security, so by installing "elsewhere" you have better control over the install, addons, etc. - even if you already are setup as an Administrator.

[dhazelgrove]

If you're upgrading(?) your OS, then there's some good news - and some bad news.

The good news is that FSX itself should not be affected, but.....
The bad news is that you might well have to reinstall FSX anyway - because the Win8 installer has a nasty habit of completely wiping the system registry.

If you're going to do it, some tips to aid the flow.


Back up all your FS directories.
Make sure you have the installers for any (not just FS) add-ons that make registry changes.
Uninstall any and all anti-virus and firewall programs.


Now - perform the upgrade(?).



Install any anti-virus and firewall programs (Win8 versions, of course).
You'll notice an icon in the System Tray at the bottom of the screen - shaped like a white flag. That's the Action Center. Right-click and open the Action Center. Click on Security, which will expand to show all settings. Look for User Account Control and change the settings to "Never Notify...". It causes more trouble than it's worth if you have a halfway-decent AV and firewall.


Once you've done all this, re-install FSX. Do not use the default installation options. Use "c:\FSX\", or some such.
Copy back/reinstall all the stuff you backed up originally.
Run FSX and change any non-default settings back to how you had them.

.....and that's all(!!) there is to it!

Dave (not cynical in any way, and speaking from experience)

.....sits back and waits for the carping.....

[odourboy]

I ran FSX under windows 8 for about six months, mainly successfully. I had one issue I could never resolve - a couple of add-ons (Milviz T-38 and Coolsky DC-9 IIRC) took ages to load. Ended up moving my FSX install to a W7 system and all was well again.

[Dumonceau]

At work we did tests with both Windows 8 and 8.1. It was a complete disaster.

Maybe those versions will cater for the needs of a consumer user, but definitely not for users in a professional enviroment.

So we decided to skip those versions and hope that Windows 9 will be better.

Given the fact that support for Windows 7 will be here until 2020, Windows 7 64 bit is your best bet.

This is of course just my HO...

Dumonceau

[jagl04]

Thanks a lot everybody. What I meant was "upgrading", and now I see that probably FSX will run fine, but I will need a lot of time to reinstall not only FSX and all my addons, but also all my design tools. Perhaps this summer, during the holidays...

[Alky]

Thanks a lot everybody. What I meant was "upgrading", and now I see that probably FSX will run fine, but I will need a lot of time to reinstall not only FSX and all my addons, but also all my design tools. Perhaps this summer, during the holidays...

If you have a choice, go to Windoze 7.
With 8 you may become the victim of the disappearing controllers issue, the only work-around is a paid FSUIPC and assign your controllers there. When I installed 8.1, I had to use directX 10 preview because textures wouldn't load properly in DX9, but did in DX10. My controller issue was still there along with new DX10 issues. I removed 8.1 and went back to 8, re-installing FSX again. :(
Everything is humming along OK now but I wish I had bought my computer a few months earlier and had Windoze 7.

[Montie]

I recommend waiting for Windows 9 or get Windows 7 now. Windows 8 and 8.1 is awful is you ask me, and Microsoft has just announced that DirectX 12 might be available on the Windows 7 platform anyway.

[jagl04]

It seems that windows 7 is the best option to use FSX. Thanks you all

[Gdavis101]

If you have a choice, go to Windoze 7.
With 8 you may become the victim of the disappearing controllers issue, the only work-around is a paid FSUIPC and assign your controllers there. When I installed 8.1, I had to use directX 10 preview because textures wouldn't load properly in DX9, but did in DX10. My controller issue was still there along with new DX10 issues. I removed 8.1 and went back to 8, re-installing FSX again. :(
Everything is humming along OK now but I wish I had bought my computer a few months earlier and had Windoze 7.

I would have to agree!

[scott967b]

Are you going from XP 86 to 8 64? I think that is a non-starter as an upgrade. On one system I did an upgrade from Vista 64 to 7 64 and it took hours to migrate all settings. I did it just to see what would happen, everything else I clean install.

scott s.
.

[fsafranek]

I installed the FSX Gold version on a new Win8 machine so I didn't have to contend with service packs. Best advise there though is to just install them in numerical order as they were released and do a reboot between each one so the OS can sort things out each time.

The only issue I have had with FSX on Win8, and it more a graphics issue, was that if I made a screen shot (hit the Print Screen key) and then jumped out to my graphics program to save it I could not get back into FSX. I'd have to eventually kill FSX using Task Manger. The solution at this time is to run FSX in windowed mode rather than full screen (sized it to be only a couple pixels from all edges) and now it works great.

Two issues I guess. I didn't know about installing it into a non-default location and that has caused some problems with a couple aircraft's anti-piracy security methods. Looking like I will have to re-install to a different location to solve that but luckily this is all on a new machine so I don't have years of add-ons and tweaks made yet.

That said, I would appreciate some info about installing it into a non-default location, like where?
:ernaehrung004:

[Jafo]

Keep away from 8.
8 is just the new Windows ME.
Even Vista was less of a dog than 8.
Since 7 is the FIRST OS that MS managed to release that actually WORKS.....stick with it...;)

I've had FSX on 7 Ult 64 ever since 7 was RTM .... [via Technet] and it's fine...installed off the OS drive [H:/Games/FSX/ ] ... and is around 200gig in size.


'if' I can get it smaller I'll migrate it to the 'C' which is an SSD and thus faster loading ...;)

[skyhawka4m]

I have been toying with the idea of upgrading to a new PC. Its very hard to find anyone selling a desktop with windows 7. Any recommendations?

[Tim-HH]

Keep away from 8.

I can't agree with that. There is no doubt that Windows 8.0 had some flaws and design problems. But Windows 8.1 is a very good and easy to use OS. The update made a big difference. And on top of that FSX works great. Many say much better than with Windows 7.

Greetings
Tim

[Alky]

And on top of that FSX works great. Many say much better than with Windows 7.

Greetings
Tim

You are one of the lucky ones! :)

[hairyspin]

I have been toying with the idea of upgrading to a new PC. Its very hard to find anyone selling a desktop with windows 7. Any recommendations?

You could build your own? If you do, Amazon.com are selling OEM copies of Windows 7: I don't think they'll be flogging Oriental fakes like you find on eBay. I've done this twice now, it's not that hard.

[ncooper]

You are one of the lucky ones! :)

Luck has nothing to do with it.
Windows 8 and 8.1 have caused me no problems, other than the disappearing
joystick, cured by using FSUIPC.
Moreover, I bought it when it was £24.99 (about $42) for Windows 8 Pro and have three full
copies for less than the price of one OEM.
Many of the harshest comments come from people who don't even have a copy.

[Jafo]

Some of those harshest comments come from Microsoft....
...and the low price was a failed attempt to improve the [lack of] adoption rate for the OS which, despite its actual improvements with the kernel had a GUI designed by a committee and was/is a dud as proven by the hurried release/s of updates and a very real concentration [by them] on getting it right [or less wrong] on 9.

Thankfully Stardock has had enough experience with MS's GUIs to release proggies which restore 7's degree of functionality to 8, thus making the latter bearable.

[Lane Street]

The only issue I have had with FSX on Win8, and it more a graphics issue, was that if I made a screen shot (hit the Print Screen key) and then jumped out to my graphics program to save it I could not get back into FSX. I'd have to eventually kill FSX using Task Manger. The solution at this time is to run FSX in windowed mode rather than full screen (sized it to be only a couple pixels from all edges) and now it works great.

Try hitting Alt+enter a couple times when that happens.

FSX does not always respond well to you jumping to another program straight from Full Screen Mode.

If you switch to Windowed Mode before switching to your graphics program it should behave better.

I see this on my laptop when flying in Full Screen Mode and the Low Battery Warning will kick FSX to the Taskbar.

The only way to get it back up is Alt+Enter a couple times.

cheers,
Lane

[WarHorse47]

The only issue I have had with FSX on Win8, and it more a graphics issue, was that if I made a screen shot (hit the Print Screen key) and then jumped out to my graphics program to save it I could not get back into FSX. I'd have to eventually kill FSX using Task Manger. The solution at this time is to run FSX in windowed mode rather than full screen (sized it to be only a couple pixels from all edges) and now it works great.Here is my technique. I'm sure there are others.

I use the 'V' key to take a screenshot, which saves a *.bmp file to your Pictures directory under Flight Simulator X. The *.bmp file matches your screen resolution, so it is typically a large, 9 Mb file. You can view it within Win8 by using the Pictures icon on the start menu.

After I've collected several file in the original format, I do a batch process using Paint Shop Pro to convert them to a smaller *.jpg file for uploading. Using Paint Shop Pro also lets me do some cropping or minor editing if I need. Sometimes I will use another program, Batchconverter.exe, to convert them to *.jpg and add a water mark before posting them on Photobucket.

After awhile I burn the original *.bmp files to a CD since they take up so much space. Since the *.jpg files are saved to Photobucket or other servers, they get deleted in time as well.

Oh. One more technique I use with Win8. The snipping tool is great for creating individual thumbnails. After selecting your aircraft for your flight, I open the snipping tool with an icon on my taskbar. Select 'New' and create a rectangular image of the selected aircraft. From there its a matter of Saving it, pointing to the correct texture directory, and renaming it to thumbnail.jpg.

--WH

[fsafranek]

You could build your own? If you do, Amazon.com are selling OEM copies of Windows 7: I don't think they'll be flogging Oriental fakes like you find on eBay. I've done this twice now, it's not that hard.
Absolutely. I've built every one of my PC's after purchasing the first back in the 80's and it was a AT clone anyway. You get to pick and choose your components at discount and in this case may be the only way to get Win7 if you absolutely must as part of the specs. If you've never done it before youtube has a ton of tutorial videos on every aspect.

For folks running Win 8 who don't like the cheesy tablet user interface you can do some tweaks to clean it up but I've found using "Classic Shell" to be much more reliable.
:ernaehrung004:.

[fsafranek]

Here is my technique. I'm sure there are others.

I use the 'V' key to take a screenshot, which saves a *.bmp file to your Pictures directory under Flight Simulator X. The *.bmp file matches your screen resolution, so it is typically a large, 9 Mb file. You can view it within Win8 by using the Pictures icon on the start menu.

I'll give that a shot. I do prefer the full windowed experience. I guess I must have hit the V key a lot on my old system because I would find a bunch of screenshots in the FSX root folder from time to time.
:ernaehrung004:

[dhazelgrove]

I'll give that a shot. I do prefer the full windowed experience. I guess I must have hit the V key a lot on my old system because I would find a bunch of screenshots in the FSX root folder from time to time.
:ernaehrung004:

Personally, I use FRAPS for screenies under Win8.1 without issues - in full-screen mode, of course.

Dave