XP, Vista, or 7?

[gdmii]

I'm going to be dedicating one of my systems just for flight simming. It's a quad core with 4 gb of RAM. For you guys who have experience with the different operating systems, which operating system would you say works best with FS9 and FSX and support programs like AFCAD and TTools? XP Pro, Vista, or 7? This will be a total new reinstall and I have all three op systems available.

Your input is much appreciated.

Thanks,

George

[okami]

From personal experience, I would say: definitely XP. I've got Vista (laptop) and 7 (desktop), and certain appliances (most notably G2K) have gone completely pearshaped on me, so much so I'm in the course of reinstating my old desktop (XP) for scenery development work...

Having said that, FS9, AFCAD and TTools do work flawlessly in W7.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

The only things I *know* don't work except in XP are Ground2K4 and FSHotSeat/SFX. The other two OS's have problems with most programs if you put them in the Program Files folder and don't deal with security settings properly. Some of these can be hard to work out since it is not always obvious which folders some programs try to access.

Hope this helps,

[jesse]

I have tried Vista and XP far outshines it for FS9. I do have FSX but I don't use it. I have not tried Windows 7 so I can't comment on that one.

Jesse

[pung]

Tom is right, I have VISTA, and the security features gave me a headache until I found out how to bypass them. If you keep your Sim outside of programs it seem to be fine (which I have). FS9 only uses (by default) one core of the operating system, where FSX was designed to use all cores available.
There is a trick to get FS9 to use multi cores with task manager "set affinity". There was a comment about that a few weeks ago on the forum. I know how to use it, but it only really helps in ultra-high scenarios. I understand that "7" is better than "VISTA", for flightsim, but since FS9 was designed in XP, that's where it seems to work best. Unfortunately if you're buying a ready made computer you'll probably be stuck with "7", (unless you can build your own).

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

this decision can only be made by analyzing
your computer use.
Is it only for FS9 or do you want to play also some of
the latest games.

If only FS 9 is relevant for you, the best is to use XP.
If you haven't a copy, try to buy XP-MCE.
( This is the "better" 32bit consumer XP )
Maybe you have to hurry a bit, it seems that Microsoft
did not want to sell it anymore in the near future.

If you also want to try the newest things, then you
need Win 7.

About Vista....forget it ;D a monster

Cheers
Wolfgang

[sunny9850]

I basically agree with Wolgang but would put it this way if you are choosing for FS use...that is actual flying only.

VISTA : Fuhghetaboutit ... it was mostly eye candy and horrible on resource management.

After that it depends on which sim you like better. If it is FS9 and FSX is only an occasional venture then XP will do the job nicely.

IF FSX is used more frequently or even with FS9 then W7 is the one to use.

And as others have mentioned DO NOT install into the default directory in either case. Make a FS9 or FSX directory directly off the Root and install there.

Stefan

[FSV1142 Kenny]

Hi Yall.

I have used all three os. I would say XP is still an outstanding os. Vista has it's moments i.e... a Vista moment , but I flew FS9 and FSX on a Vista computer, ran afcad, Instant Scenery, Gmax, and Sbuilber just to name a few programs. All in all Vista was not that bad.

At this time I'm running Windows7 64 bit and loving it ;D All of my scenery programs work just fine! No compatibility issues with FS9 or FSX. My windows 7 computer is a quad core with 4 gig of ram. From what I understand 7 handles the dual and quad cores much more efficiently than XP and Vista. Personally Windows 7 64 bit is a winner ;D.

[gdmii]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll pull my HD with XP on it and install a new drive with Windows 7 64 bit and give that a try. I'm running 7 on a laptop now but haven't tried FS9 or FSX with it.

Thanks again,

George