Newbie question CFS3 /WIN10

Hi all,

Sorry in advance, I am sure this is a very old question. I have signed up because my elderly father has been persuaded by me to upgrade his clunky ol XP PC to a new Win 10 which I assured him would make his regular FS games run smoother. I have managed to get his FS2002 working but his favourite CFS3 just wont run once the game opens up, it just freezes. I have done some research and another site led me to believe he needs a 'patch' but they don't want to talk about this for some reason.

Could someone point me in the direction of some (simple) instructions for someone with only basic PC skills so I can get him in the air again please?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

That is because the use of the 'patch' is a breach of the EULA and thus illegal . Most sites do not show 'active support' for its use or allow links to be posted as it would be 'unethical' for them to promote such activity, even if they accept that use of the 'patch' is widespread and easily found. That said some sites are not as 'ethically' minded. BTW what the 'patch' does is to bypass any Digital Rights Management (DRM) security that is included on the media - i.e. in the case of CFS being able to run the sim without having to have a CD loaded in the CD drive. This is a big problem with Win 10 as MS removed the file that supports DRM as it is a security risk. They also disabled it, via an update, in Win 7 and 8 but, as they no longer supported XP, didn't push the update onto that OS.

 

What action you can take to get CFS up and running can actually depend on the original media that your version resides on - i.e CD or DVD - this is because the CD version will need the 'patch' whilst the DVD version won't as the version is DRM free.

 

Use Google (and no other search engine - the reason will be clear) and use the search phrase 'Running CFS2 in Win 10' - this will produce a load of info as to how you can get CFS up and running based on the media version. Also look at the 'Searches related to running cfs3 in win 10' section that is displayed at the bottom of the website page listing for an important 'clue'. I appreciate that you want basic instructions on how to get CFS up and running but this website takes the 'ethical' point of view WRT to the use of 'patches' and normally deletes any entries that give specific links to such patches.......

 

If you have the DVD version a simple solution that may get it running is to change the Compatibility Mode and to run it with Admin rights as follows......

 

A. Navigate to the main CFS folder and located the CFS3.exe file.

B. Right click on the file and select Propertied from the resulting menu. A new window will be displayed.

C. Click on the Compatibility tab.

D. Change the compatibility mode by placing a tick in the box located within the Compatibility Mode section and then selecting one of the options available from the drop menu located immediately below the tick box. I suggest the Windows XP (service Pack 3) option.

E. Place a tick in the Run this program as an Administrator option located under the Settings section.

F. Click either OK or Apply and then OK to save the changes and close the window.

That is because the use of the 'patch' is a breach of the EULA and thus illegal.

It's not just that it violates the EULA, but that the US, Canada and other countries have passed laws making it illegal to circumvent DRM on music, video and software.

Hi again,

Ok it turns out it is not CFS3 but what I think is CFS 1? wwII edition?

So I reinstalled into the root directory, the game does now not freeze, but it wont use his joystick. If you go through setting, controllers, enable joystick you can then go through the calibration routine, but when returning to the game, or even lokking at assignments, there is no option to use the joystick.

Any ideas please?

3 options to try - the first and second is from memory (its been a very long time since I used/owned any of the CFS franchise) I remember doing the option 1 fix when I moved from XP to Win7......

Option 1

Change the Compatibility Mode and run it with Admin rights as I described in my first post but this time change the Compatibility Mode to the Win98/ME option - this is the OS that CFS was originally designed to run on.

Option 2

1. If you still have access to the old XP PC find the CFS install on it and copy the following 3 files to removal media - combatfs.cfg, devices.cfg and devices2.cfg.

2. Locate the combatfs.cfg file in the Win 10 CFS install and rename it to combatFS_old.cfg and then copy the XP version of the file into the folder. Test.

If good then no other action is required. If the problem still exists repeat 2. for the devices.cfg and devcies2.cfg files.

Option 3

A quick internet search found this website that has a tool that may fix the issue. On the landing page scroll down reading the links in the main white area (i.e. not the blue menu listing) until you see a link titled 'The Vista,Win7,Win8 Win10, Joystick Fix for CFS1'. Click on the link and the tool is first in the list - click on the 'Download' link to download it. Looking at the contents of the readme file the 'fix' contains replacement files so follow the install instructions closely - I suggest that you make copies of the any files being replaced BEFORE running the setup file.