Right now it's all a mess...I went thru the computer and got rid of every file relating to flight sim fsx....at this point I have refreshed the machine and yesterday tried reinstalling fsx, got to the end of the installation and it hung up again. This is really pissing me off..it should not be this hard. It's not FSX, but rather Win8 and I don't think the fixes that are available for vista and win7 work on win 8...I will keep trying, but I think i'll get an9tehr machine and go back to XP...I hate all this nonsense. XP was understandable.
Windows 8 is not your problem.
FSX needs to be installed correctly and to avoid problems with file access permissions,
it is vital that it is not installed into C:\Program Files and better not to install it into C:\Program Files (x86).
This is how to do it.
First, create a folder on your C: drive, or on any other drive if you have more than one.
Once you have created a folder, name it FSX.
Now you have a folder C:\FSX.
Put the FSX disk 1 into your DVD drive and when prompted, select the custom install option
and set the installation path to C:\FSX.
Once it has installed and before you add Acceleration, run FSX as far as starting the default flight.
This will complete the first part of the installation.
Only then install Acceleration.
If you have FSX and service packs 1 and 2, the same rule applies.
Run FSX to the same point before installing service pack 1 and then to the same point again
before installing service pack 2.
If you have Acceleration, you don't need either service pack.
FSX will run perfectly well with Windows 8 with four small tweaks.
1) Installation of FSUIPC will prevent G3D.DLL errors, just as it does in Windows 7.
2) Placing the Vista version of UIAutomationCore.dll in the main FSX folder will prevent
errors relating to the incompatible Windows 8 version.
3) Adding the line
HIGHMEMFIX=1
to the [GRAPHICS] section of the fsx.cfg file will help prevent OOM errors.
4) Set fsx.exe to run as an administrator in the Properties\Compatability window you will see if you right
click on the file.
It may also be helpful to disable the Windows 8 User Account Control, which will remove
the countless windows popping up asking you to confirm that you give permission for the
next required action.
I have been running FSX under Windows 8 since the beginning of November last year, with
no more problems than I had with Vista or Windows 7 and better overall performance.
To avoid a recurrence of your aircraft failing to start, try not to set any flight other than those
included with FSX as your default flight.
If you haven't already burnt your copy of Windows 8 or FSX,
good luck.
Regards,
Nick