Slightly OT: RealFlight G2 and Vista

Windows Vista is real good about not working with older programs. RF G3 is more likely to work in Vista though I can't garantee it. G4 will work. Check the classified sections of

Good luck.

I'm not a Vista expert (and don't play one on TV), but I have heard that Vista can be made to emulate an XP system and you can run some older programs that way.

Ron Kelley

You might want to check out the forums at:

If you decide to get one of the newer versions, you can get G3 (which converts to 3.5 free) a little cheaper than G4 which, in my view, isn't all that much better. As someone else pointed out, you can probably get a better price on rcuniverse or rcgroups rather than eBay.

Harlan

| You might want to check out the forums at:

Also note that RFG2 was the newest version for a long time (until some competition came to wake Knife Edge -- they were already on top, so they stopped trying) but there were minor changes made from time to time, and the CDs shipped got updated as well. In any event, depending on when you got RFG2, you might have one of several different versions. The earlier versions (such as the ones that came with the joystick interface controller) would not work with more modern patch levels of XP or many modern (at the time) graphics cards. In some cases, you had to get patches from Knife Edge just to install it -- it couldn't install enough of itself to install the control panel that would let it download patches.

And as mentioned, if you're looking for something better, RFG3 is a big improvement over RFG2 in many ways. RFG3.5 (a free download to upgrade RFG3) is a small improvement, and RFG4 is another small improvement.

Two things to try which work on many programs that run on Windows 98 or XP: 1: Instead of letting the disk autorun, cancel the setup when it starts. click the My Computer icon. Right click on the drive that the CD is in. Click Explore. Find the Setup.exe file. Right Click it and select properties. On the compatibility tab select either Windows 98 or XP SP2.

No promises, but it should at least get the program to install.

Good Luck, PCPhill

BTW: Also make sure the disc is clean! dirt or scratchs(especially on the printed side) will prevent a good read. Dirt can be cleaned, scratches on the top turn it to a coaster permene

FWIW, scratches on a CD can often be removed by polishing it with an auto polish or a car wax with a cleaner in it. Be patient, it can take some rubbing, but it works.

Randy

This sounds like a problem with your drive not being able to read your CD properly.

Try copying the entire CD to your hard drive. If that also fails, you have a hardware problem. Some drives have problems with some discs, while the same disc can work perfectly in many other drives.

Actually there is a problem with Vista where certain files, notably .ocx files get registered improperly and you will get an error message that a certain .ocx file cannot be read or it is missing. The solution is to unregister the file and then Vista will read it and register it again, hopefully corrrectly the next time. Sounds flaky, and it is, but then again it is Mickeysoft so what else can we expect?

The registry in Vista is a quagmire of problems and will remain so until there is a service release to fix it.

Not necessarily. The whole thing beds Active-X to run, and if its looking for the libraries in the windows directory, and they are now completely different by name...

That works with the shiny(back side of the disk) side. Any scratch going through the painted/printed side of the disc usually damages the substrate and can't be fixed.( although some data recovery is possible). Trying to fix the non-shiny side will only extend the damage.

PCPhill

But thats OK, since the data is read from the back side, leaving the 'top' side free for marketing boolocsks, coffee stains and scratches.

The data is on a reflective layer just under the label of the disc. The laser passes through the bottom of the disc and is reflected back through to the sensor. The bottom can be polished because there's nothing important on it. Scartch the top well and it's toast.

PCPhill