Windows 8.1 64 or Window 7 64

I am halfway into a campaign to build my first Gaming PC... just a quick question to get the general feeling on whether to go with window 7 64bit or windows 8.1 64bit .? whats the general feeling.? what are the pro's and cons with respect to FSX issues.?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Win 8.1, I run FSX on it just fine. Under the stupid interface MS decided to give it, you have a fast and very stable OS.

 

Just remember the basics: install FSX outside the default location in C:\Program Files (x86). If you can afford a second hard drive, put it there, if you have to put it on C: then install it to C:\FSX or something like that. Run it off the desktop, and run it as Administrator.

 

That's it - happy flying!

 

Jorgen

Windows 8.1 with an alternate desktop like the free Classic Shell. Like the man said, fast and very stable.

I ran into this dilemma last year, after buying a new computer. I failed to do my due diligence (checking here, although it goes beyond that - I had no idea that Win8 even existed, nor Win7 for that matter!!). In any event, I wound up with Win8 pre-installed. When I first installed FS 9 and FSX the fireworks began!

 

After that I did what you are doing, and what I should have done before I bought the computer - I checked Flightsim.com. I learned about the trick, mentioned above, of installing into the root of C (or another drive, which was an option I did not have) and the bit about running it as administrator. Those tips resulted in a bare bones install of both sims that worked fine.

 

The problems erupted when I tried to install my sine-qua-non add on - the LDS 767. The list of woes encountered with that product and Win8 is long and distinguished, and I wound up on the short end of that stick. I could not get the 767 to run no matter what tips and tricks I tried. There are other add-on's as well that have problems with Win8, although to be fair some of them have apparently been fixed. But not the 767, at least as of 6 months ago.

 

So I went to the internet and bought a legal download edition of Win7/64, wiped the C drive clean of everything and installed Win7. I have lived happily ever after, at least as far as FS is concerned (I have been getting weekly Driver Power State Failure crashes but that is another tale altogether, and I just live with that! I don't think it has anything to do with FS).

 

As for the stability of Win8, I really didn't have much if any trouble with it except for FS, during the relatively short time I had it installed. My advice would be to check out the relationship of Win8 and whatever add-on's you intend to be using. If the reports are that they play nice, you can probably go ahead with some version of Win8. There are ways around the kindergarten level interface!