[paraffin]

Calling all Windows 7/Vista experts...

I was having a problem with X-Plane, and while I finally figured out what was causing it, I don't know the best way to go from here. I recently upgraded to a new computer running Windows 7 after my previous one died suddenly. All my prior experience is with Win XP. I re-installed X-Plane the same way I re-installed all my other software, into a folder under C:Program Files (x86). Windows Exlorer shows the location as C:Program Files (x86)/X-Plane 9, and that's where I added new scenery and new planes. X-Plane works fine while flying, and all the add-ons I'm using with it like Goodway, TrackIR, REX, scenery and paware planes work fine.

The trouble started when I created some new directories under C:Program Files (x86)/X-Plane 9/Aircraft to organize the plane selection, adding and deleting planes. The new directories and copied aircraft folders show up in X-Plane's file system, but any folders or files I *delete* still persist in X-Plane's file list, and will return "missing airfoil" type errors if I try to load the plane (which I know isn't there anyway).

After some online research, I discovered that Windows 7 has virtualized or mirrored this set of folders for some reason into this location:

C:/Users/(myname)/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/Program Files (x86)

Not just X-Plane, but also Goodway and REX are there. The only other program installations that ended up there aside from X-Plane related files are the Microsoft Games folder, and a Bethesda Softworks folder holding saved games in Fallout 3. Everything else I installed on this new computer is where I expected it to be installed, in C:Program Files (x86) without "virtualization."

So the question now is how do I deal with this, so I can continue to re-organize plane and scenery folders without X-Plane "seeing" files that aren't there. Do I...

1) Leave the setup as is, and make any new changes in the VirtualStore hierarchy?

2) Uninstall everything and re-install directly under the C:?

3) Something else? Is there a utility available that will automatically remove installations from VirtualStore and put them under C:Program Files (x86)?

I know I'm going to get recommendations for #2, but I'm hoping there are other alternatives. Aside from the fact that I don't like cluttering up the file structure at the top level of my main C: drive with direct program installations, it will be a pain to re-install and in some cases re-authorize payware like REX, my Falco payware plane, etc. I'd like to stress that everything is working fine, except for when I delete files in the /Planes area and X-Plane doesn't recognize the deletion.

[brett s]

This is exactly why we always recommend installing the sim to your desktop if using Win7 or Vista & why the installer defaults to that, keeps the OS from doing stupid things like that

[Indi-]

Move everything you want to manage from Program Files into Virtual Store. Leave the majority of x-plane in program files. Should be fine.

Virtual store has priority.

Yes, it drives me mental too. No I haven't bothered to fight it out, I find it easier to just put X-P on the desktop.

[paraffin]

Indi-, on 17 July 2010 - 12:24 PM, said:

Move everything you want to manage from Program Files into Virtual Store. Leave the majority of x-plane in program files. Should be fine.

Virtual store has priority.

Thanks for that info!

I just wanted to check back in, and bump the thread with results in case it helps anyone else. The key in understanding this was the comment "VirtualStore has priority," at least for the /Aircraft folder and sub-folders. I moved my active plane folders there, where I'm adding and deleting planes, and making changes with Planemaker (things like renaming the description so it can work in FS Economy). So far, so good. Seems to work fine, and it saves me doing a complete re-install.

The weird thing is... that this Win7 virtualization/aliasing business only seems to screw up with the /Aircraft folder structure, and not the /Custom Scenery folder. I can make all the additions, deletions, and re-arranging I want in the real /Custom Scenery folder, and I don't have the problems I have when doing that in the /Aircraft folder. Only the /Aircraft folder is mirrored over with priority in the VirtualStore hierarchy. Very strange. Anyway, I thought I'd post this info in case it helps with any future tech support answers, or feedback to Laminar about how this is being installed under Vista/Win 7.

Quote

Yes, it drives me mental too. No I haven't bothered to fight it out, I find it easier to just put X-P on the desktop.

Yeah, I'll do that next time, when version 10 comes out. Right now it's working and I don't want to break anything else.

[paraffin]

One more comment on this. I know it's easy to automatically go into "Windows sucks!" mode with this sort of thing, but right now X-Plane is the *only* program I've installed, or re-installed since upgrading from my old XP box, that has given me these problems loading into the VirtualStore directory. It's the only one.

Everything else I installed works fine, like my registered copies of Adobe Photoshop, Premier, Dreamweaver, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, the OpenOffice suite. All this non-Microsoft stuff loaded in fine, in the /program files (x86) where I expected them to be. Only X-Plane is having these problems. Otherwise Windows 7 and the new PC it's running on, is giving me the smoothest performance and least amount of hassles with production software and games that I've ever had.

I understand why it's a good thing that X-Plane is cross-platform, but seriously guys... if you want more Microsoft Flight Sim users to migrate over here to X-Plane, you have to fix this.

That segment of the market is not going to take kindly to advice to just "install it on the desktop," when everything else works fine without doing that. And there are very good reasons, from a Windows-user and file management perspective, not to just install programs directly on the desktop. I'm not seeing this right now as a Windows problem. It's a problem with localizing X-Plane to the Vista/Win 7 platform, and I hope we don't have to do these silly workarounds with version 10.

/rant off