Windows 10

[Ian Warren]

Nick , Windows 7 machine here , with all the works .. Love the pop ups telling ya to go 10 , but its a nah this time moment .

[toprob]

My initial plan was to upgrade my tablet, which I've reported on, and was definitely a huge improvement for a 'touch' device. I had decided to hold-off on my PC, as there are a lot of little tools I rely on for the business, and I didn't want to lose any productivity time. However I did 'accept' the invitation to upgrade, and since then I've had the 'We're validating your PC' message.

In my first post here, I did mention that some people might have to wait 'maybe days', but I didn't realise that some would wait two months. so by the time it popped up last night saying it was ready, I had had plenty of time to check things out, and I decided that I was confident enough to go for it.

Went without a hitch, I set it and walked away, came back in 20 minutes and it was all done. I went through all the important applications to make sure everything worked, and so far so good.

The only problem is with EZdok, but I had heard that it needs to be re-installed. Not too sure about the missing SimConnect message it gives, though, so I took it out for the moment. In some respects, when developing I prefer not to use it, so this suits me until I have time to just fly again. Whisplacer was the one thing I worried about, as this is a never-finished beta, using SimConnect and Java. But it works great so far.

However there's one major omission which really annoys me -- the context-sensitive image preview in Windows Explorer. I constantly use this, so I'll really miss it. Maybe I can find a way to restore it, but for the moment I'll just have to go without.

But this did make me realise that for this very reason I couldn't recommend that my flatmate upgrades, although her PC would benefit greatly with Windows 10, I'm sure she wouldn't want to lose a handy feature like this. After all the yelling I had to do to teach her how to use the context-sensitive menu -- 'Just think of the context!' -- it would be a setback it things went missing.

[NZ255]

What do you mean by the context sensitive image preview, Rob? I tried googling it but not getting it.

[toprob]

I should call it 'right click' but I'm left handed, so it isn't...
When I would right-click an image filename, one of the first choices would be 'preview', was very handy. This would open Windows Photo Viewer, which is now deprecated, so I can understand why it doesn't work now -- the Photo Viewer is still available, though, so I hope that someone will come up with a way to put this back into the menu.

[NZ255]

I should call it 'right click' but I'm left handed, so it isn't...

Ah, right ( )

That's my biggest gripe for desktop - apps for everything. I just want a lightweight image viewer, I don't need it to organise it into an album, retouch it so it looks better, and upload it to the cloud

Still, bring it on

[toprob]

Hmm, this morning I am getting 'preview' on the menu for BMPs, but still not JPGs. I'm sure that's an improvement over yesterday...
I just can't yet figure out how to get the P3D screenshot folder to remember the way I like 'em sorted. Some folders work, some don't. Still, there are some very handy new features in Win 10 that I'm just discovering on the desktop PC, even though I've had it on the tablet for two months.

[Eagleeye]

When I loaded FSX on my Windows 7 64bit system I installed it on a separate SSD. What I would like to know is if I was to get a new Windows 10 64bit desktop computer, and then install that SSD as an additional internal drive number, say (F: ) would it run and function as normal. In other words is Win10 capable of running an SSD loaded in Win7. I have so much data on that drive reloading it all again doesn’t bear thinking about.

[toprob]

You would need to reinstall FSX, but there's no reason why you couldn't retain the current contents of the drive, so maybe a 'hybrid' install would work -- by that, I mean that depending on how much room you have on the SSD, you could just rename the current FSX installation, reinstall FSX, then seem what works just dragging it into the new install. Some things won't work, and will need to be reinstalled, but a lot should. You could drag whole default folders such as SimObjects and Texture.

On the other hand, maybe just do a complete reinstall, one of the great things about a new system is getting to start over, and you don't want to be hampered by little niggles getting stuff to work properly.

Be aware that there are a lot of addons which will definitely require a re-install -- for example, trying to reuse an Orbx installation may trigger their rather strict protection, requiring a reinstall of Windows, apparently.

[Eagleeye]

Thanks for your opinion Robin. I usually build my own computer so if I do build another I do have the option to load my copy of Win 7 64bit. This OS has been the most successful and popular in Microsoft's history in my opinion, their continued support of it is what most folk I know would want. 'If it isn't broken don't fix it'!

[toprob]

Just to clarify, Windows 10 doesn't make the difference here, it's FSX which needs to be reinstalled. It'll work the same with any compatible version of Windows, including 7.