Is it possible to change "Home" back to FSInsider? (FSX Gold - Box Edition)

Hi all,

In FSX, Gold, Box Edition, in the startup screen.

Under the "Home" button we used to find FSInsider.

The FSInsider site still exists:

http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/downloads/Pages/

Now, in Gold, FSX box edition, under "Home" we find the Steam-site.

Is there a way to change this back to FSInsider? There is a wealth of info on that site.

Thanks, il88pp.

Hi,

Change the "Product" shortcut in the main FSX folder to the link you provided.

Jim F.

Thank you.

I tried your suggestion, but it did not work.

Maybe I did something wrong?

I found the shortcut 'product' in the main folder,

C:\FSMain\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\

and right clicked and selected properties.

In the 'Webdocument' tab I changed the URL to:

http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/downloads/Pages/

I removed the original file from the main FSX folder and placed it on the desktop.

But when I start FSX it is still the same page as before.

I even removed the original file from the pc completely. I still get the steam site in "Home".

--

Well, actually.... Some clarification needed.

The link in the original 'Product' shortcut is not really the Steam site.

It is FSXInsider. Some sort of linkage to either Steam or Youtube or FSInsider.

The links in it open the webbrowser (IE in my case).

I don't visit Steam often, so I only just noticed this.

----

Question still stands.

This seemed like it should work. The link in 'product' was what was showing in FSX.

But changing the link did not work.

Other files involved pehaps?

This is the KRAP I am getting on my HOME PAGE! Someting Wong I think! It ain't what it use to be!

yes, that's the screen I mean. I get the same thing.

I first noticed it 2 weeks after Steam edition came out.

I noticed after refreshing the fsx.cfg file. But I went through that with a fine tooth comb but found nothing. I even restored an old fsx.cfg file, but no change.

By the way jandjfrench,

I checked, but the change to the shortcut 'product' I made did persist.

It still links to the FSInsider Page.

Also if I double click it.

Just no change in FSX itself.

Hi,

I apologize for not checking before posting. When FSX first came out and I had dial-up I edited gs01.htm in the Uires folder to remind me to check my connection before going on line. I recalled fooling with the Product shortcut and thought I was able to redirect the browser. May have been before SP1 and something has changed but a bad memory is more likely.

Jim F.

no worries. It seemed promising enough, and was easy to check.

Just now I typed www.fsinsider.com into the browser bar, and that linked itself to the site with the annoying screen. (the address changed).

I have a feeling www.fsinsider.com

is fixed into fsx somehow. (fsx.exe ?)

I hope it's not permanently welded in there...

Hi, here is a list, where the link is buried inside the main FSX folder. As a redirect is in place on the FSInsider website, the only way to rid ourselves of this would be a direct file manipulation.

I see. I am not at the pc now, but I downloaded the image and see the search you did. Search for fsinsider.

Thank you.

By file manipulation, do you mean pulling out sharpdevelop or VSE, c++?

Ps: what program have you that image? With offsets etc.

Depends on which one the actual link that is used on the home screen is.

If it is one of the text files, no problem changing it.

If it is one of those in a binary: as the link is in there in readable ASCII text and not encoded, a Hex editor will do. You open the binary in the editor and overwrite the address with some arbitrary text or blanks, so that it's broken. And then hope that FSX won't choke on that. You can only replace the text with another one of the same size. There is a link in fsx.exe, but I somehow doubt that is the one, because it is part of some XML type structure about the ACES devel team. I suspect it's the one in language.dll. Trial&error will tell.

The program is a professional hex editor I'm using at work.

Another apporach entirely is setting up a firewall rule for this address and block it.

That's all new for me.

Can you recommend free hex editor?

Is messing with something like language.dll or an exe even allowed?

Would a windows search give this list? Or only when able to look inside those files, like in your program.

Do I understand correctly that replacing the link using a hex editor is not possible, as they are different in length?

OK, it seems that it is the one in "Dialogs/gshome.spb". But it looks like manipulating that one breaks the FSX home screen. I will have to read around a little about this, maybe there is a way to edit these dialog files properly.

This list cannot be obtained with any publicly available software that I know of.

Thank you. But, no rush!

This is not a very important issue.

There is a lot of good info on the site, and I liked having it under the button. I recently looked up the site and saw there was much there I had never looked at. Development stuff.

The home button is a useless add now and that's an annoyance.

But it does not stop me from enjoying fsx.

A fix would be nice and I like the learning experience. But don't let it eat up to much of your time.

Have a good one,

il88pp

OK, this was easy.

1. You get a small tool from flyawaysimulation called "spb2xml".

2. You decompile the dialog file: "spb2xml gshome.spb gshome.xml"

3. You edit the resulting xml - you can put any link in there that you want ("_blank" is a good idea...)

4. You move the xml file to the SDK into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimProp"

5. You recompile it using the SDK: "simpropcompiler 2spb -symbols "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\propdefs\*.xml" gshome.xml gshome.spb"

6. You copy the new gshome.spb back into the Dialogs folder

Example:

Microsoft Flight Simulator UI Resource Document

gshome.spb

1024,768

0,0

Flight Simulator Dialog Template

true

false

211,80

805,585

false

../fsweb/gettingstarted/gettingstarted.htm

../fsweb/learningcenter/keyconcepts/whatschanged.htm

gs01.htm

https://www.flightsim.com

Lol!

I have to re-read that on a wider screen but I got most of it. Wonderfull.

I'm amazed you found it that quick, wow!

That would have taken me weeks at least.

I won't be at my pc for a few hours at least. Will report clear.;)

thanks a million nuitkati.

il88pp:cool:

Clear of the tower!

I did notice small error in your post #16 step 5. The quotes at the beginning and end should not be in the command prompt.

I did it wrong at first, but figured it out.

Thanks again!

Saved your post as "nuitkati thinks this is easy.....txt" :).

il88pp

PS: This message was sent from within fsx!

and

Clear of the tower!

 

I did notice small error in your post #16 step 5. The quotes at the beginning and end should not be in the command prompt.

I did it wrong at first, but figured it out.

I had to somehow mark the beginning and end of the commands... :)

The important quotes with DOS commands are the ones around file paths. Modern Windows systems can have blanks in the path, and the DOS commandline doesnt understand this. If you have trouble with cmdline programs (like those from the SDK), always check this first.

I knew about the path-quotes. And quotes around a filename, as in step 1-4, I expected as well, but I did not expect them around a command...:)

I did think it looked funny though. I tried it with the whole thing in quotes first, but I did not really expect it to work. Got it soon enough.

When I tried to compile the second time, with the flightsim address, I got an error about no xml files in said fsx folder. error 80004005.

Looked, the .xml's were there. Compared to backup, they were really all there.

Took a good cup of coffee before I realised copy pasting the command was a bad idea, as my fsx is not in program files (x86)..... lol.

Btw, I only just discovered copy-pasting in there. Untill now I typed everything. Control-C // Control-V never worked but I now found that right-click-paste does work.

Thanks for all your help, I had no idea where to start looking.

I love the result. And thanks to you I have another tool in my toolkit.

il88pp.

Oh, one other thing I noticed. You don't need the command line to decompile gshome.spb.

You can just drop it on spb2xml.exe

For example:

spb2xml.exe in folder- C:\\ownprogs\spb2xml\

gshome.spb on the desktop, in folder: ..Desktop\New Folder\

Have both folders open.

drag: gshome.spb on to spb2xml.exe

||

In folder: ..Desktop\New Folder\

a new file gshome.xml appears.

Things like these always make me think in dismay about those spiteful threads (over at AVSIM especially) harping on what an old codebase FSX is, and that it being so old practically means that it shouldn't be working at all. That "the community" NEEDS a new sim, or we all will perish. Or along those lines anyway.

And then you find a fully XML configurable dialogue system with built in custom web browser right there in the sim. FSX IMHO is a very well thought out piece of software, a real masterpiece in its own class.

I believe that this unfortunately was one of the reasons for the downfall of the MS FS series. The developers from ACES got a little carried away with all the open-ness and configurability. That result could not have gone down well with management, even if it was great for users and addon developers. If everyone can do everything with this base sandbox, what is there left to sell for MS? And oh how right they were... Even ten years later you can use FSX to build a sim environment so detailed and "real" that it brings the most powerful PC to its knees...

OK,OK. Sorry for the rant.

Oh, one other thing I noticed. You don't need the command line to decompile gshome.spb.

You can just drop it on spb2xml.exe

 

For example:

spb2xml.exe in folder- C:\\ownprogs\spb2xml\

gshome.spb on the desktop, in folder: ..Desktop\New Folder\

Have both folders open.

drag: gshome.spb on to spb2xml.exe

||

In folder: ..Desktop\New Folder\

a new file gshome.xml appears.

This is a Windows 7 thing. Notice how the cursor's tooltip changes to "open with spb2xml". This should work with any file/program associations. For example you can have a shortcut to MS Word on your desktop - when you drag a document on it, it will be opened. Luckily the developer of spb2xml was so kind to drop the result into the same folder where the source came from :)

You can even drag&drop a .FLT file onto fsx.exe, it has a command line function too...

So that is only in win7?

Or did you mean it is something the OS (any OS) takes care of?

I dragged files onto exe's occasionally to open them for years.

Only recently, when creating a gauge, did I see dragging a folder onto "Cabdir.exe" created a .cab next to the folder I had dragged. That wa new for me.

I noticed it worked here too, with "spb2xml.exe".

But when I dragged the .xml onto "simpropcompiler.exe" I only saw a brief flash from a DOS-box. No resulting file.

When I looked at your command I saw a switch was needed. (I learned about switches during some brief year of running FreeBSD linux.)

Is there a way of drag-dropping while at the same time adding a switch, or only when using a command prompt?

I have very little DOS knowledge/experience. I know how to browse a filesystem, and how to start a program, but that's about it. Copy commands, or making symlinks, I have to look up when I need them.

I did at some time, years ago, learn to boot a pc with 5or6 DOS floppy's, then insert a floppy with a game or something like wp (51?) and even save a file on yet another floppy, but I forgot most of it I'm afraid. Sorry.

I see I missed one,

And then you find a fully XML configurable dialogue system with built in custom web browser right there in the sim. FSX IMHO is a very well thought out piece of software, a real masterpiece in its own class.

 

Even ten years later you can use FSX to build a sim environment so detailed and "real" that it brings the most powerful PC to its knees...

.

I fully agree!! -- FSX Forever!!

Just think of all those wonderful modern add-ons. PMDG, ORBX, etc. I have just downloaded the Fokker Dutch Cheese and have high hopes about that one also.

FSX is the perfect platform. A rock-steady foundation to build on.

il88pp