FLIGHT SIM QUESTION IL2 & Windows 7 - Anybody put these two together

Ian the Kiwi Herder · February 17, 2010, 12:49:13 PM

Evenin' all

Well my 8 yr old PC (running an old Athlon 1800 processor), has finally become so slow and unreliable - "Coughing-up blood" according to Dork the Kit Slayer a well known contributer to this site, that it needs to be completely replaced. I'll be buying a new system in the next couple of weeks, and would prefer to run Windows XP SP3 (Home edition). However as most here will know, nobody seems to be willing to put-together a package (for me) with the old XP operating sytem, it seems that Windows 7 is compulsory. So my question is therefore....

Is anybody here running IL2 '46 with W7 ?? and are there any problems I need to be aware of ??

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Best

Ian

pyro-manic · February 17, 2010, 01:04:56 PM

Ian, just build the machine yourself and install XP SP3 on it. Don't buy something you don't want!

lancer · February 17, 2010, 02:33:25 PM

Quote from: pyro-manic on February 17, 2010, 01:04:56 PM
Ian, just build the machine yourself and install XP SP3 on it. Don't buy something you don't want!

Couldn't agree more

PR19_Kit · February 17, 2010, 02:39:53 PM

Ian,

I've tried twice to install IL2 1946 edition on a Win7 system and the machine won't even 'see' the setup.exe file!

There's lots of problems to get it to install, but the IL2 site isn't at all helpful on how to get round it. Apparently some people have suceeded but I can't spend the time to find the right solution myself.

I'd go with what the others suggest, build yourself a system and install WinXP, but make sure you don't use any ultra new hardware or the WinXP drivers may not be available for it.

Talos · February 18, 2010, 09:32:21 PM

This should be all you need right here. I'm building a system with Windows 7 (hardware won't support XP SP3), so I'm doing this to get FS2004 and IL2 running at max specs. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

PR19_Kit · February 19, 2010, 09:07:47 AM

I'm afraid that may not do the job.

Ian wants to install and run Il2, and if Win7 won't even recognise the setup.exe file on the scource CD he'll never get as far as 'running it in WinXP' mode, just as I can't.

Talos · February 19, 2010, 09:34:31 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on February 19, 2010, 09:07:47 AM
I'm afraid that may not do the job.

Ian wants to install and run Il2, and if Win7 won't even recognise the setup.exe file on the scource CD he'll never get as far as 'running it in WinXP' mode, just as I can't.

Hmm, all I can volunteer then is that when I get my system up and running in a week or so Il2 is the first thing I try to install. PR19, have you tried autoplaying the disc? And if so, have you tried going into it and accessing the file directly? I believe with the XP Mode, you can actually access the disc from in there as it is a whole installation of XP Pro SP3 that's installed inside 7 for legacy programs.

PR19_Kit · February 19, 2010, 09:53:05 AM

I've tried everything, and nowt works, sad to say.

However, this particular system is an older Vista machine that I upgraded to Win7 and it behaves differently to a native Win7 system, so there may be some hope.

frank2056 · February 19, 2010, 11:22:14 AM

I put together an i7 computer, running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 (to get more than 3-ish GB of memory)...and I can run IL-2. How?

I downloaded and installed VirtualBox(www.virtualbox.org/). It's a free x86 virtual machine. Since I already had a working XP computer, I used some software to make an exact copy of my XP computer, then installed that copy in Virtualbox. You can also do a clean install of XP. Since it's a virtual machine, everything is in a large file.

After my old computer had been "virtualized", I added the Virtualbox additions, which includes a DirectDraw implementation and ran IL2. It didn't run well at first, since the joystick was extremely sensitive, but with some tweaking I was able to get it to work. Since this is the first version of IL2, it still has the occasional crash, but it works.

Frank

PR19_Kit · February 19, 2010, 01:48:12 PM

That sounds a good idea Frank, thanks for the pointer. I may give that a try.

Ian the Kiwi Herder · February 22, 2010, 12:29:43 PM

I have listened/read everything you guys have said, and I'm having a 320GB machine put-together with 3(ish) GB of RAM. Looking at a top end graphic card - cannot recall the name, but not so high that it needs a motherboard with its' own power supply. OS will either be XP Pro or Home edition (SP3), so I can run my IL2 (7.09 version looks great - flyable SM.79's and three new theatres of operations' amongst many other goodies).

Also got Falcon 4.0 to load-up, never played that yet and I can finally replace my SF/WoV/WoE with with SF2, which means I can start downloading some of our very-own SPINNERS, skins to drop into it.

'Rise of Flight' looks magnificent, but mostly I'm looking forward to running FSX and the Hunter add-on form Just Flight (I think it's one of theirs

).....

Thanks again all.

Ian

Tojo633 · February 27, 2010, 06:57:19 AM

Ian

Have a look on Evilbay for Cefni computers, just got one through the week, depending on the offers they seem to be new ex bankrupt stock. Although the one I got was not at the right spec 2.4 to 2.8 CPU it was in fact a 1.8, it had 2 x 40 gb hard drives instead of one as compensation and 512mb Ram. Deal I got was £99 + 12 Postage mine has Window XP on it already with a Dell XP sticker? DVD player with CD writer I think it is no additional graphics card but thats easily sorted, there are better ones though a bit dearer. Will check and see if I can get you a current link. Booted up ok and comes with a 12 mth warranty.

Item specifics - Desktop PCs
Chip Type: Intel Pentium 4 Processor Speed: 2,400 MHz
Memory (RAM): 512 MB Hard Drive Capacity: 40 GB
Brand: Cefni Computers Primary Drive: DVD+/-RW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-New-PC-Windows-XP-12mth-warranty-99-BARGAIN_W0QQitemZ230436402848QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item35a71476a0

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-New-Intel-Pentium-4-PC-Windows-XP-150-BARGAIN_W0QQitemZ220555327450QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item335a1f37da

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-New-TWIN-processor-PC-Windows-XP-2GB-180-Bargain_W0QQitemZ220558295509QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item335a4c81d5

Prices are from £99 to £300 depending what deal you get or really need, mine was a £99 as i have drives cards etc to add to it. looks like the last link listed (Transformer type case if you see what I mean)

Cheers
Sandy