Microsoft Flight Simulator X Readme File

Thank you for purchasing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. This file contains information that may not be included in the printed manual or in-game information about Flight Simulator X. These notes, instructions, and tips will help you get the most out of Flight Simulator X. Important: This product is for entertainment purposes only and should not be used for training purposes. It is not part of an approved training program under the standards of the FAA or any other regulatory agency.

Contents:
Installation Installing Microsoft Flight Simulator X Starting Microsoft Flight Simulator X Installation Tips Hardware Issues Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Microsoft Windows Vista Viewing and Printing the Microsoft Flight Simulator Manual and QRC with Adobe Acrobat Reader Kneeboard Simulator Multiplayer Flying Lessons Software Development Kit Installation The Air Traffic Control (ATC) System Sound Third-Party Software Product Activation

Installation
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Installing Microsoft Flight Simulator X

You can only install one installation of Flight Simulator X on a single computer. In other words, you cannot install Flight Simulator to one folder and then install the simulator to another folder on the same machine. If you have Flight Simulator X Standard installed and you want to install Flight Simulator X Deluxe, you must uninstall Standard first.

If your computer does not support automatic installation, follow these steps: 1. Insert Flight Simulator X Disc 1 into your DVD drive (installation will not run from a CD drive). 2. Click Start on the taskbar. 3. Point to Settings and/or select Control Panel. 4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. 5. For Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista, select Add New Programs and click CD or Floppy. 6. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

Starting Microsoft Flight Simulator X

Windows XP: Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Games, point to Microsoft Flight Simulator X, and then click Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Windows Vista: Click Start, point to Games, and then double-click Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

Installation Tips
If you are having problems installing Flight Simulator X, use the following methods in the order below. 1. Before installing software, make sure to close all open software applications including antivirus software. 2. Inspect the DVD for visible deformation or scratches. If the disk is damaged, contact Microsoft Sales to obtain a replacement DVD. The phone number for the sales office in your area can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide. Note: If the DVD was provided with your computer, contact your computer manufacturer to obtain a replacement DVD.

3. Clean the DVD. To do this, use a DVD cleaning kit, or gently wipe the silver side of the DVD with a soft, lint-free cotton cloth. Do not use paper cloth, which can scratch the plastic and leave streaks. When you clean the DVD, wipe from the center of the disc outward. Do not use a circular motion. If the issue continues to occur, clean the DVD with a damp cloth or a commercial CD-cleaning solution. Dry the DVD thoroughly before you insert it into the DVD drive. 4. If the issue still occurs, adjust system settings for your DVD drive. More information on how to do this is available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q218617 How to Troubleshoot DVD Read Errors which is available online at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q218/6/17.asp.

Hardware Issues
Video Drivers and Graphics Cards
For better graphics and performance, we recommend that you update your video card driver from the card manufacturer. Video card drivers are small software programs that tell Microsoft Windows how your video card functions. When you have display problems with a game, the best course of action is to upgrade your video card drivers to the most recent version. Your video card or its drivers may not be recognized until you update your drivers to the latest version. Use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine the version number of the video driver installed on your computer: 1. Click Start, and then click Run. 2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK. 3. Click the Display 1 tab. 4. Under Device, note the Name, Manufacturer, and Chip Type, and under Drivers, note the version number on the Version line. 5. If multiple video adapters are installed in your computer, repeat steps 3-4 to determine the version number of the video driver for each additional video adapter installed in your computer. 6. When you have noted the version numbers for all of the video drivers installed on your computer, click Exit. Visit your video card manufacturers Web site for information about how to obtain and install the latest driver for your video card. Laptop displays in full-screen mode: The display cards on some laptop computers may let you select a resolution that is larger than the LCD device can support. In these cases the view may be cut off when running Flight Simulator in full-screen mode. To see the full-screen image, either reduce the resolution or use windowed mode (press ALT+ENTER). Driver updates do not resolve this issue.

AMD The initial visual experience on a computer with an AMD processor may be lower than expected. To improve the visual experience 1. On the main menu, click Settings. 2. Click Customize. 3. Select a higher setting in the Global settings list. Adjusting these settings may impact performance. ATI (http://www.ati.com/na/pages/na_index.html) ATI Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition: Screen may flicker or display black in some instances.

Nvidia (http://www.nvidia.com/) Fireworks may have defined, square borders and appear blocky on nVidia GeForce2 with all driver versions. De Havilland Beaver windows may appear opaque in spot plane view on computers with nVidia GeForce2 video cards. Dolphins may not appear in Missions on computers with GeForce2 GTS or GeForce2 Pro 32 MB video cards.

S3 UniChrome (http://www.s3graphics.com/) Special effects (fireworks, fire, etc.) may not display properly on computers with S3 UniChrome video cards.

Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

To get updated drivers for the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, you must download them from http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/downloads/default.mspx.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Microsoft Windows Vista

Flight Simulator X is designed to run on the Windows Vista operating system. Flight Simulator X was released prior to the completion of Windows Vista. If you start the Input Method Editor (IME) and then start a Flight Simulator X multiplayer session, the IME language bar may be permanently hidden when you quit Flight Simulator X. You may have to restart Windows Vista to see the IME again.

When running Flight Simulator X in windowed mode (as opposed to full screen mode) on Windows Vista, Flight Simulator X may appear to stop operating. Flight Simulator X actually keeps running but in order for the window to refresh, you must follow these steps to temporarily disable the Vista Glass and Aero features:

To disable Windows Vista features globally 1. Right-click the Windows desktop and then click Personalize. 2. Click Windows Color and Appearance. 3. Clear the Enable Transparency check box. 4. In the color scheme list, select Windows Vista Basic. 5. Click OK. To re-enable Windows Vista features globally 1. Right-click the Windows desktop and then click Personalize. 2. Click Windows Color and Appearance. 3. In the color scheme list, select Windows Vista Aero. 4. Click OK. To disable Windows Vista features globally only when running Flight Simulator X 1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder in which you installed Flight Simulator X. 2. Right-click on FSX.exe and then click Properties. 3. On the Compatibility tab, select the Disable desktop composition check box. 4. Click OK.

Viewing and Printing the Microsoft Flight Simulator X Manual and QRC with Adobe Acrobat Reader
Adobe Reader allows you to view and print PDF versions of the Flight Simulator X manual and quick reference card, which are located on disc 1 in the Extras folder.

To install Adobe Reader

Visit http://www.adobe.com and follow the appropriate links.

Kneeboard
The Navigation Log page of the Kneeboard shows estimates for Ground Speed, Fuel Usage, and Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for each waypoint, as well as blocks for the corresponding Actual data blocks. If you load a flight youve saved, the Actual data blocks are blank until you arrive at your next waypoint. To view the data for a saved flight, see the Navigation Log. (On the Flights menu, select Navigation Log.)

Simulator
Pressing ALT+TAB to switch between Flight Simulator X and another program minimizes Flight Simulator X to the task bar. In some instances, Flight Simulator X may not restore to the desktop or take a long time to restore. To enable the correct behavior, exit Flight Simulator X and restart. If you increase the simulation rate, computer-generated AI aircraft are disabled above 4x simulation speed.

Missions
If you want to save a mission prior to completion, we suggest that you save the mission (press semicolon) just before reaching an objective (as indicated in the Mission Pointer/Compass text). If you save while trying to complete a specific objective, some of the mission triggers may not fire properly when you restart the mission, possibly making successful mission completion impossible. Activity and time in Missions is not recorded in your pilot logbook.

Multiplayer
The Multiplayer menu option will not be listed in the main menu until the product is activated. Computers using Netgear WGT624 and Netgear WGR614 routers are unable to connect to each others sessions. Netgear routers will also not connect to sessions hosted on computers with the following routers: Microsoft MN-100, Microsoft MN-500, and Linksys WRT54G.

Multiplayer Voice Communications If Flight Simulator X is running and you plug in a USB headset, the headset is not detected for voice communication use until you restart the program. To chat via a headset while in the Multiplayer lobby, players must press CTRL.

Multiplayer Connections You should have a high-speed connection if you're hosting a large Internet Multiplayer session. Conversely, if you connect to the Internet using a dial-up modem, you should allow only a small number of session participants.

Flying Lessons
When you fly the introductory Lessons, the flight planner menu is disabled until you restart Flight Simulator X. To make Lessons easy to follow and fly, set units to U.S. Standard rather than International (metric). For more information, see the article Changing General Settings article in the Learning Center. In lessons that require navigation with instruments, IFR weather (cloudy conditions with low visibility) may not be present.

To set low-visibility weather conditions during flights 1. Press ALT and then choose Weather from the World menu. 2. Click User-defined weather and then click the Customize Weather button. 3. Set Clouds to Overcast. 4. Set Precipitation to None. 5. Set Visibility to 1 mile / 1.6 km. 6. Set Wind speed to None. Click OK.

Software Development Kit Installation

You can install the complete Flight Simulator X Software Development Kit (SDK) by running the Setup.exe program located in the SDK folder on Deluxe Disc 1.

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system

Visibilities are not given in fractional amounts by the ATC system. If the visibility is set to 1 , for example, ATIS and AWOS will report it as 2 miles. With the Autotune feature, the transponder squawk codes are autotuned upon issuance of IFR clearances. If you cancel IFR, you should manually tune back to 1200 if you want to use that transponder code. Similarly, you should manually squawk 1200 when you cancel flight following. After takeoff from a CTAF or uncontrolled airport, at about 200 feet, the ATC menu switches to the VFR en route state. If you want to do a Touch and Go, you have to reselect the airport and announce landing intentions. Upon landing, the Announce Takeoff menu appears.

The ATC menu is disabled in Instant Replay and Flight Video. This is by design. If you have made changes in Map view, clicking OK in Map view cancels your IFR flight plan (it resets ATC, IFR, and the current Flight Analysis data). If no changes are made in the Map view, there is no problem. ATC doesn't always detect taxi routes as seen in the scenery, so if you select Progressive Taxiing you may be routed in a direction that does not appear to be the most direct path. If the default runway has an ILS, ATC will assign the ILS approach. If the default runway is a non-ILS runway, ATC will assign a visual approach. You can request a different runway and type of approach from ATC. Sometimes a controller and a computer-generated aircrafts pilot have the same voice. When this happens, it may sound like one long instruction from the controller because the readback is virtually the same as the initial instruction. This is necessary because of the limited number of voices. Sometimes, if a computer-generated aircraft has requested takeoff, your aircraft is told to hold short even if it is already on the runway. Multiplayer Tower Controller is only available as a feature in Flight Simulator X Deluxe.

Sound
If you experience popping or other low sound quality, upgrade your sound driver or experiment with the sound settings.

Third-Party Software
When you install third-party scenery that includes Flight Simulator 2004-style aerial imagery with Flight Simulator X, and the scenery settings are set to recommended values, the simulator load times may be long. If you set the LOD range in Flight Simulator X to what it was in Flight Simulator 9, scenery loads more rapidly after a reboot.

To set the LOD range to Flight Simulator 9 values 1. Open the FSX.cfg file in a text editing program like Notepad. 2. Under the [TERRAIN] section, set the MIN_LAND_CLASS_LEVEL= entry to 11 (the default is 10). 3. This setting will decrease load times but will degrade the quality of distant scenery somewhat. To restore the original quality of distant scenery, delete the MIN_LAND_CLASS_LEVEL line from FSX.cfg.

Product Activation
Once you install Flight Simulator X, you must activate your copy of the product. You will have an opportunity to activate the product over the Internet using the Activation Wizard at the end of the installation. The Activation Wizard will appear every time you start Flight Simulator X until you activate the product. Until you activate Flight Simulator X, you can only use the product for 30 minutes each session. The phone number for Korea does not appear correctly in the activation wizard user interface. The Korean product activation number is: Korea: Toll=1577-9700 (Nation wide local toll only); +82 (2) 567-7881 (International rates may apply) TollFree=1577-9700

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