Windows 10

Hi,

I have just received a message to day saying that I can now install windows 10 onto my computer,there is also a install button I can click on,seeing all the problems I have been having getting both MSTS and TS 2015 working on my windows 7 computer I'm inclined to leave well alone.

I can only use MSTS through open rails,I was under the misconception that MSTS didn't like windows 8 and or Radeon graphics cards,but with windows 7 it would work Ok with any graphics card.

Mike

The Windows 10 message relates to an update from Microsoft, see HERE.

mikehendle wrote:

I can only use MSTS through open rails,I was under the misconception that MSTS didn't like windows 8 and or Radeon graphics cards,but with windows 7 it would work OK with any graphics card.

It's not quite that clear Mike.

I can only speak from my experiences and those I am well acquainted with. My own PCs have only ever run Nvidia graphics since 1996 since my PC builder at the time refused to have anything to do with ATI or Intel onboard. So when my wife bought me MSTS in 2002 it worked out of the box. I did note that it wouldn't run properly on the work laptop at the time since that had Intel Onboard Graphics and the display was all scrambled to mush like you have found. This was the reason the UKTS show PCs were originally Shuttles with Nvidia cards and later laptops with Nvidia graphics cards.

With Windows 8 it is more complicated - I had a spare Nvidia card that worked fine under Windows 7 so I gave it to somebody having issues with Windows 8 and it just plain would not work under Windows 8 despite other people being able to get pretty well the same specification card (GT430) working. It appears it is a subtle interaction between motherboard, graphics card and possibly CPU as well.

I know a number of people running MSTS under Windows 8 with Nvidia cards. I don't know anyone running Windows 8 and a Radeon card.

With Windows 10 - well I am waiting to see before taking the upgrade route. I have MSTS and a bunch of other stuff that I need to keep running so I will wait for the early adopters to take the plunge first.

Regards
#John

Hi All,
Contrary to comments I made earlier, elsewhere, I have now built a completely new PC!  It has a Samsung SSD with both Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, although the latter will be the primary OS. The graphics card will, initially, be an NVIDIA GTX 750ti, but may be replaced by a 900 series card later. I have moved from the AMD Radeon series due to the requirement to run a "fix", which might not work for ever!

It will have a completely virgin MSTS installation (its target disk drive has never been used before so there's no chance of any MSTS remains!).  The Steam4Me tutorial will be used to install MSTS into its own folder followed by the v1.4 update.  The only additional changes made will be to remove the startup.mpg file and to set the executables to "Run as administrator".  Several problems have been reported when attempting to install/run MSTS under Win 10 and these are what I'll be monitoring :
1. Problem installing from CD2.
2. The requirement to install DirectX v9.0c.
3. Problems using the Editors.
4. Use of SecuROM/SafeDisc protection on some CDs (eg SVR route).

If you've come across any other anomalies when using MSTS under Windows 10, or I've missed any obvious ones, please let me know, and I'll specifically look out for them.

Initially, MSTS will be on a 'normal' HDD, but tests with it installed on an SSD will be made, once everything has been proved to be working correctly under Win 10.  If previous tests are anything to go by, I don't expect any significant improvements!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi All,
Since early October, I've been running Windows 10 Pro 64bit, exclusively.

I feel I've given it a good trial and, although have had absolutely no problems running MSTS, am not so happy with other aspects of it!

1. While copying files from one folder to another, on the same partition or a different one, Windows Explorer will suddenly close for no reason and without any warning.
2. The boot time is more than twice that of my Windows 7 partition. Exactly the same programs are installed on both partitions, which are both on the same SSD.
3. More than once recently, Hotmail (outlook.com) has failed to start and Thunderbird (email client) takes a relatively long time to load.
4. The OS gets very sluggish when loading updates, which happens quite often.

I appreciate that there may be fixes for some of the above - I have already applied one for item 1 without any benefit - but I think the OS should work properly in its default configuration, especially for Hotmail/Outlook which is a Microsoft product!!

In view of the above, I'm reverting to using Windows 7 Pro 64bit full-time, but will keep an eye on Win 10.

I'd be interested to hear of others' Win 10 experiences

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

As you may remember I tried W10 earlier this year and wasn't very happy with it. I didn't find it as easy to use as W7. I also lost the internet ( probably unrelated to W10 ) and had to get a "professional" to sort it for me. At the same time I asked him to remove W10 and re-install W7. Again, if you remember , when it came back not only he had installed a W7 32bit, removed my nearly new SSD and replaced it with a very slow HDD which took about FIVE minutes to boot up( I think you said it was more suitable for a laptop ), he had changed all my drive letters. After much thought I decided to cut my losses and rebuild the computer myself. So I bought a new, much larger SSD for my C drive and installed my W7 64bit onto it. This also meant re-installing MSTS and some other programmes. The result is I now have a nearly fully functioning computer working my way. The biggest problem I get is when opening the activity editor in a mini route it opens the last route I used elsewhere - any thoughts?

Sorry if I've wandered a bit off topic,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Good to hear from you

Most of the problems you had seem to have been caused by the "professional" you called in to sort your PC out!!

Your problem with running Activity Editor for a mini route is, I feel, unrelated.

I suggest you open up the mini route's MSTS root folder, right click on train.exe and select "Send to"  - from that list, select "Desktop (create shortcut)".  Your Desktop should now have a new shortcut, which looks the same as the default MSTS icon.  Right-click on the new shortcut and select "Properties"; on the "Target" line, following train.exe", add one space followed by -toolset.  You may also change the name of the shortcut to be, for example, the name of the mini route followed by Editors.  It's also possible to include the mem switch following -toolset by adding one space, then -mem:nnnn where nnnn is 1024 or 2048 depending on the amount of memory (RAM) installed on your PC.  
Double clicking on the new shortcut should now start the Editors for the mini route installation.

Alternatively, you can use my MSTS_Swap utility which will do all the above automatically - all you need to do is add your mini route installation to the program's list of installations.  You get the options to run several of the MSTS utilities you already have installed, together with MSTS in Sim or Editors mode.  

It's very important to note that before you run AE for the mini route, either the activity you want to edit must have been selected in the Mini Loader, or Mini Loader is run initially and "Unstore All" selected;  this is assuming it's one of the UKTS issued mini routes, or one you've built yourself using the Mini Loader.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

Thanks for your advice. I thought that I had got all my mini route activity editors set up correctly so perhaps I need to redo them at some point in the near future - like sometimes when a program or whatever stops working switching off and then on again fixes it!!

Regards,

Stephen