Windows 8.1 & FS 2004

Willy

Willy

Administrator
Staff member
Just pulled the trigger on a new comp last night and I'm wondering about Win 8.1 and FS9. I know I'll need to put it in a non-default location. Anything else I should be aware of? It should be here by the end of the week.

Also, has anyone got one of the old Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro (first model with USB adaptor) to work with 8.1?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Willy
 
Hello Willy. I am so enamoured with 8.1 I have bought XP to replace it. Nuff sed.....

I've had a kit with 8.1 now for about seven months now and it handles FS2004 O.K. apart from don't try to minimise the screen. I did once and nearly dug my own grave. It's ctrl/alt/del to try to bail out.


For readers who fly CFS1; Screen size varies on how the system feels at the time but the game is playable.

I cannot, however, get away from wide-bodied panels, regardless of changing the screen resolution. I'm using my old XP kit's monitor, which was perfect.

For readers who fly CFS2; try pushing water uphill, it's easier. I have given up flying it due to the bizarre behaviour of 8.1.

Minimising the screen to the taskbar and attempting to re-open to full screen results in the screen locking-out to a nice shade of black. To get out I have to switch the kit off at the box or the mains.

Items not related to flight sims;

Two annoyingly stupid behaviours of 8.1;

If you have a file with each word starting with a capital letter and make another ending with a number or letter to differenciate from the first, 8.1 will not let the capital letters stand on the second file. It changes them to miniscule. It knows better than you and will not let you change it unless you write it away from the file.

Moving a screen with restore down to the top, bottom or sides of the screen gives you white 'shock-waves'. I'm just waiting for fast-food adverts to start popping up.

I honestly feel M$ have succeeded with 8.1 in putting all the bad ideas of all the other operating systems into one.

My apologies if I sound negative but my kit cost me £600 + £79 for 8.1 and I'm a pensioner. I did ask PC Specialists here in England when I ordered the kit not to provide an operating system as they could not fit XP but the 'salesman' talked me into it, telling me 8.1 would be miles better at playing games due to its drivers. Well, they've driven me bl**dy mad so you can't say he wasn't telling the truth!

In my honest opinion; XP or cry. Simples...

Sorry 8.1; Null points.

Graham Sullivan. G.B. The home of P.C. 'Specialists'.
 
Wow, I use FS9 on a cheap laptop with 8.1 and have none of those problems.

I can minimize/maximize all day long without any problems. Just make sure you are in Windowed Mode.

I have no problems renaming files, and I do that a lot.

I suspect Graham is having problems caused by a video driver mismatch.

The only issue with FS9 in Win 8.1 is the airplane preview screen in the Create a Flight menu is black if you are in Full Screen Mode. Toggling to Windowed Mode (Alt+Enter) fixes that if you really need to see the preview.

cheers,
Lane
 
Willy,
What's the new PC got under the hood? (cpu, memory, vid card, hd/d) Is the OS x64?

Yes, install fs9 outside of Program Files or Program Files (x86) folders. This way you can
keep UAC on and still edit your files. It would be better to have it installed on a seprate hd/d
if you have one, or take the old hd/d out of your old rig and install it. The later would work as
you wouldn't need to reinstall fs9. Just get the Flight1 registry tool and create a new shortcut.

As for the joystick it should work. My old Saitek Evo was seen by wins 8.1 and wins update
installed drivers for it.

Joe
 
Hello Lane. I get the black window in FS9 too. I could not help chuckle at your mention of 8.1 drivers as I had mentioned already being 'driven' round the bend with 8.1!

Do you happen to fly CFS1 and 2?

My kit is not on line and the drivers are as fitted.

You must be a lucky one as other posters on this site have had problems or done what I am going to do, ditch it.

In all honesty, I am sure M$ are just slinging these systems out ad hoc, knowing us mugs will either tell them what is wrong with their 'current version' so they can either fix it or shyte out another one so we spend good money going back to square one. And so the game unfolds yet once more....

Good people are paying to burn their bridges behind them, so to speak.

I cannot understand why so many different O.S. have been produced so quickly, so I have to beg the question; Why?

My wife's laptop has been 'updated' from 7 to 8 (because she was too naive to refuse it). I'm on it now and it behaves just like my new one.

It appears to me M$ has tumbled it can make a vast amount of revenue by legally mugging computer users and we have been stupid enough to let them.

To use and old saying; 'If you get shafted once by someone, shame them. Get shafted twice; shame you'.

That's why I'm not on line and have a new XP SP2 disc to fit. I'm sick of M$hyte.

XP is in use in lots of hospitals and other huge corporations worldwide to this day. M$ tried to woo them onto Vista but as it bombed they panicked and churned out O.S. after modded O.S. which got them nowhere. Just made them look amateurish.

Looking forward to W9 and W10 with nice new rose-tinted glasses.

Graham.
 
Went with store bought instead of a custom build for once.

iBuyPower NA020

3.2ghz Intel Core i5-4460 quad core
8gb DDR3
Nvidia GT730 2gb
Win 8.1
1TB HD

I've been having problems with the old XP machine for a bit here and since XP 64 has always been a bit of a bastard stepchild in the scheme of things with regards to driver's, etc, I talked the the Finance Dept (Mrs Willy) into me getting a new comp provided I got the most bang for the buck (& stayed under $700). Started out looking at an HP Pavillion All in One but soon figured out that I could save a good bit (or get an even more powerful machine) if I kept my old monitor, speakers and stuff. I've no complaints with my monitor and speakers so I ended getting a good deal on this one which is just the tower. I've got my FS stuff on the E drive which is a 1Tb drive, so if I can put it in as a secondary drive again, I should be good to go. If not, I'm backing it all up on a 500g portable HD that I use for such purposes.

As for the joystick, since the original post, I checked the MS compatibility website and 14 out of 17 say that it's compatible. I like those odds for a stick that I bought new in 2000. Computers come and go, but that old stick just keeps going. Amazing really for something Microsoft built.
 
Lane Street said:
The only issue with FS9 in Win 8.1 is the airplane preview screen in the Create a Flight menu is black if you are in Full Screen Mode. Toggling to Windowed Mode (Alt+Enter) fixes that if you really need to see the preview.
Click to expand...

I'm on 8.1 and the only issue I have is what Lane mentioned above.

FS9 runs great with everything maxed on my particular configuration.

As noted, it's best to install outside of the program folders. Here is my setup:

2w2lp8n.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi,
Good luck with 8.1
I can FS9 with no problems at all in Windowed mode; actually, that's not quite fair, it will run full screen, but will not show aircraft in the pane. Which is a pain :pop4:.
The other thing I had to do was get rid of the silly boxes MS want us to play with and I installed a very simple and brilliant program called Classic Shell which changes a lot of the front end to make it a bit more like 7 or XP.

Andy.
 
Thanks for the heads up on Classic Shell. :jump:

Hate those boxes, restrictions, and 8.1 interface. Grrrrrrrrr
 
Guys,

In a couple of months Windows 10 will come out as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. yes, you read it right: Mickey$oft is going to release a new OS for FREE!

I've been testing Windows 10 for a couple of months now, both at work and at home, and it is very VERY promising!

Cheers,

Johan
 
Dumonceau said:
Guys,

In a couple of months Windows 10 will come out as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. yes, you read it right: Mickey$oft is going to release a new OS for FREE!

I've been testing Windows 10 for a couple of months now, both at work and at home, and it is very VERY promising!

Cheers,

Johan
Click to expand...

I wonder if that means all the programs that won't work right on 8.1 will work on 10?
 
Terry said:
I wonder if that means all the programs that won't work right on 8.1 will work on 10?
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that progress is what it is. If older games and progs don't work on Win8.x, they probably won't on 10.

This might be the good reason needed to move over to P3D!! ;)

Johan
 
Woah! I'm just back having reinstalled Win7 64 after a full month struggling with Win 8.1. after a new PC build. Actually had to re buy a copy as Mrs. has my old machine with W7. Anyway..... Win 8 is horrible, clumsy, and just gets in the way which is surely what an OS should never do. When it started dropping out USB ports whilst using FSX (don't know about FS2004) it became totally unusable. I researched the issue and it is apparently a well known problem. I tried all the supposed fixes but none worked. It would at random moments just disconnect the joystick, sometimes the Saitek panels, always the Yoke, often the attached MyBook HD's. It also trashed my tax return, so I have to redo all that again and we know what a pleasure that can be. :encouragement:
My advice for what it is worth, avoid W8. Perhaps W10 in the summer will be better. We can only hope. :applause:
Anyway I'm back in the comfort of W7. :adoration: I'm just sorry to have wasted a month and I still have another 10 or so days ahead just reinstalliung FSX never mind all the other stuff.
Dy'all reckon I could sue MS for my wasted time? :biggrin-new:
 
dhazelgrove said:
.....and then - of course - you'll have to re-install everything.....?

Dave
Click to expand...

Funny that you ask that Dave!

I had a discussion yesterday with our Microsoft Technical Assistance Manager and his reply was clear: no you should not.

In fact, after the update is installed, the only thing you have to do is to delete the C:\windows.old folder.

He was pretty adamant about it, just having migrated himself!

Hope this clarifies stuff a bit!

Johan
 
Got the new comp this afternoon and I've been messing about with it for about 6 hours now. Win 8 is a lot different from XP, but not too different and I'm starting to like it. Once you find the desktop that is. So far it's been just a matter of playing around and seeing what does what.

As for FS9, I did a new install and trying to get it going good enough for our nightly flight, in my hurry I copied in the wrong aircraft folder. Oops.. But I did get in a short flight and it seems to be working fine other than the aforementioned blacked out aircraft view in full screen and I did notice my cursor is black in the sim. Mostly what's going on now is the usual new install stuff. But with a Cal Classic C-46 over DC with everything turned up, it stayed on 25fps rock solid. (I stay locked at 25 for online multiplayer)
 
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