Windows 10 - MSTS a few limitations

Many people are reporting that MSTS installs and runs OK under Windows 10 - however, I have found a few limitations which I'll comment on below.

Traditionally MSTS has normally been installed as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\........

With Win 8.1 and Win 10, most 16 or 32 bit programs install as C:\Program Files (x86)\...... instead of the original C:\Program Files\......

Since Win Vista / Win 7, most tutorials recommend installing totally outside of \Program Files\ and suggest C:\1MSTS.

My first attempt was under C:\1MSTS (using the guidelines in the steam4me Win 7 tutorial) but I found that it seemed to be a bit too unstable under Win 10 and frequently got the CTD.

I then tried C:\Program Files\.... and again found it a bit too unstable.

Finally I installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\.... and have found a relatively stable installation. It installs at a working screen size of 1280x1024x32 in my new laptop screen of 1920x1080 with black bars down each side.

First limitations - although I have a 1GB inbuilt HD 4400 Intel card as well as a second 2GB nVidea Geforce 840M card in my new 17" laptop (Intel Core i7 4510u, 16GB DDR3 memory and 1TB HDD), I've found the FPS rate to be only about HALF of my former Vista MSTS installations. I've tried setting MSTS to use each card on its own along with many variations to the usual card settings. I'm currently putting this down to using the inbuilt Win 10 drivers, as at the time of writing this, neither Intel or nVidea have released updated drivers for these cards since the release of Win 10. As there is relatively little performance difference between the two cards, MSTS is currently set to use the nVidea card. Hopefully there may be some improvement once new drivers are released.

Second limitations - most existing add-on rolling stock / activities, etc. are designed to install into the default location C:\Program Files\........ rather than C:\Program Files (x86)\ or C:\1MSTS. So, I have setup a 'dummy' MSTS folder structure under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Train Simulator\....  This then enables me to temporarily install new assets to the default location, then copy and paste them over into MY 'real' MSTS installation under C:\Program Files (x86)\.

Third limitations - If you are a Route builder, like I am, under the 'old' arrangement, there was a nice little utility called msts-scrz.exe - this enabled the route authors to significantly increase the size of the editing screen when route building. Unfortunately, this was 'hard-coded' to install to C:\Program Files\.... , the problem being that under Win 10, this utility will NOT work in ANY of the three main MSTS installation locations, not even under C:\Program Files\.... where it was supposed to work. So...... as far as my route building activities go, I am now RESTRICTED to the original small default editing window - this slows my route editing sessions down somewhat !!!

I'm hoping I can get my original Vista desktop machine fixed and be able to recover my original backed-up MSTS installation in full.

I'm hoping that this new post, may encourage others who may have overcome these limitations to comment on their solutions.

Regards, Brian

OK - having solved my problems regarding the installation of TSM under Win 10 (see separate topic), and as part of that process, my 'resurrection' of my old Win XP laptop gave me the opportunity to revisit the problem of MSTS route editing.

Although I did have an old working installation of MSTS on that machine, I decided to totally uninstall it, manually clean out all previous remnants and re-setup MSTS specifically to use only for route editing.

I reinstalled a 'bare bones' MSTS under the normal location of C:\Program Files\Microsoft games\Train Simulator ...... When I say bare bones, I only installed the Settle & Carlisle route, just to get it all working. Once I'd checked that it all worked OK, I deleted the default route and stock, for a clean MSTS.

I then copied over  one of my existing NSWGR routes and associated NSWGR stock, as well as ensuring the Global folder had X-Tracks, NewRoads, etc. correctly installed. I then did a test and found MSTS route editing functions working correctly on my existing NSWGR route. I then installed the msts-scrz.exe utility and set it to the largest screen size, and ran another test.

I now have a fully functional MSTS route editor with the larger screen size.

Although it is on a much slower older machine running XP, it is faster to use than the smaller default screen size under Win 10 on the new machine. My intensions are to only have the route (or 2) that I'm working on installed, along with the required library of structures, etc. to install into the route.

When I first bought my new laptop with Win 8.1, I was very apprehensive with it being able to fully run my train simming as I originally did. As I wasn't impressed with Win 8.1, the upgrade to Win 10 was an easy choice.

After several months of fiddling around and testing, I now have a fully functional train simulation system once again.

Albeit:
- divided over 2 simulators - Open Rails and MSTS
- divided over 2 operating systems - Win 10 and Win XP
- divided over 2 laptop machines - a new fast 17" and an old slower 15"

A side effect of working over 2 laptops, is that when route editing, I can have Google Earth open on the other laptop while I route build, making it easier to build more accurate scenery in my current route. Also when I'm making new rolling stock or structures in TSM, I can have photos, plans, etc open on the other laptop as visual aids.

Overall this arrangement makes everything easier in the long run. Now I'm happy again !!!

Regards, Brian

Thanks again for another detailed post on Windows 10 and MSTS. Although it's somewhat disappointing that you are having to use the older OS, it does give us an approach for continuing to use MSTS. Let's hope that the continuous update approach by MS for Windows 10 doesn't cause further problems along the line. Presumably when Open Rails develops a Route Creation/Editing procedure it will be done based on the latest OS?