PMDG Windows Vista FAQ
From PMDG Ops
Contents |
Introduction
Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system was released in late January, 2007. As with any major software revision, Vista brings some issues with its many changes.
Vista Info
Drivers
Video and sound drivers for Vista are currently in a rather barebones and immature state. Nvidia and Creative Labs in particular have only unoptimized beta drivers available. You will experience a loss of performance in Vista compared to Windows XP until fully optimized drivers become available. Both companies are stating mid-March for the availability of these drivers. Reports on ATI's initial Vista drivers have been better with many users reporting only minimal performance loss compared to XP.
UAC
Windows Vista features a new security mode called User Account Control. UAC is designed to prevent users from unknowingly or accidentally harming the operating system and critical files. It is a major step forward in securing Windows against spyware and virus threats. Some power users may find UAC's warning prompts annoying and wish to turn off, however we recommend most users leave it on as it does provide an additional level of security against malicious programs, family members with just enough knowledge to be dangerous and corrupt the OS, etc...
UAC brings to Windows security functionality similar to what's present in historically more secure OSes like Mac OSX or Linux. It works by forcing the user to supply administrator credentials every time the system needs to make a major change, such as installing a program or driver, or changing a system setting.
Folder changes
Several changes to streamline folder structure have occurred in Vista. The most visible of these is that
C:\Documents and Settings
is now simply
C:\Users
The OS is smart enough to know that when an old program such as FS9 requests a location within the old XP folder system, it will automatically reroute it to the new Vista folders.
This change will result in your FS9.cfg under Vista being relocated to
C:\Users\(Your User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FS9
Memory Usage
If you check your free memory in the task manager, you will probably be horrified to see that even with 2+GB of RAM you have almost none shown as free. Before you start cursing Microsoft, read on about SuperFetch, Vista's new memory management and caching system.
SuperFetch works on the premise that idle free RAM is actually a waste of resources. What it does is track which programs you use most in which order and at which times during the day and night. It then uses this information to intelligently precache applications into memory so that they will launch faster and run more smoothly. In fact, if you're using your system soley for simming, it's very likely that FS and your addons are already sitting there in RAM waiting for you to launch them. Many have reported that FSX feels smoother in Vista and SuperFetch is likely the reason why since it has already cached the FSX files.
SuperFetch is smart and if you tell Vista to run something that needs a lot of memory (like a new game for instance), it will basically instantaneously clear out space for it via something called Resource Exhaustion Prevention.
So in conclusion, the "high" memory usage in Vista is completely normal and part of the OS's new framework, don't worry about it.
PLEASE NOTE: There have been reports of OOM (out of memory) errors with several "complex" games and Flight Simulator X is one of them. For further details on this read Phil Taylor's blog entry here and an excellent article from Anandtech here.
More Info
Tweakguides has released their Tweaking Companion for Vista - it is nearly 300 pages long and absolutely chock full of great info about how the OS works and how to tweak and optimize it for best performance. Read through it if you'd like a better understanding on virtually any topic related to the OS.
PMDG Products in Vista
You shouldn't have any issues with the download versions of our products. Just accept the UAC prompt right as you run the installer and everything should go fine from there.
The Aerosoft CD version of the 747 Queen of the Skies and 747 CARGO addons fail to install
When running the CD version installer in Vista, you may see an error message that says
A required security module cannot be activated. This program cannot be executed.
This issue is caused by the installer and validation application on the CD, which is different than the one on our download versions. Certain legacy applications aren't programmed for Vista's UAC feature and try to use administrator privileges without notifying the UAC system so that it can ask for it. This is an example of such an application.
To resolve this issue:
- Browse to your CD drive in Computer or Windows Explorer.
- Find the CD's setup exe file.
- Right click on it and chose the "Run as Administrator" option.
This bypasses the issue described above. Be sure to try this workaround with other software that you might have trouble running or installing under Vista, it's a common issue with older software.
Localized language Vista versions
We've received a few reports of customers who aren't able to install in localized language versions of Vista even using the above method. If you are in this group try the following:
- Browse to your CD drive in Computer or Windows Explorer.
- Find the CD's setup exe file.
- Right click on it and chose the "Properties" option.
- Select the "Compatibility" tab.
- Place a check in the top option and choose Windows 2000 from the drop down box.
If the above does not work, you make have to check the "Run As Administrator" box in the exe's properties, choosing it from the right click menu may not work.
747-400 installer exits after pressing validate
To resolve this issue, right click on the installer file and choose Run As Administrator from the context menu.
Liveries not showing up in FS9
To resolve this issue, right click on your FS9.exe or Start Menu/Desktop shortcut and choose "Run as Adminstrator" on the compatibility tab.
Will PMDGs future products be Vista compatible?
100% absolutely.
