Trainz 12 and Windows 7 - what should I expect?

F

frogpipe

Yesterdayz Trainz Member
A while back I bought a motherboard, processor, and memory from a Dell Inspiron 570 for a song. At the time I had a P4 with AGP x8 and I wanted to get into the 21st century.

So now I have an Athlon II X4 CPU, a nVidia GTX550 video card, 6gb of memory, and because I already had it Windows XP....

Yeah, not getting much use out of that 6gb of RAM.

So I'm debating an update. Thinking of switching to Windows 7, 64bit.

I figure that any other programs that throw a curve at me I can handle, but Trainz and FS2004 I am concerned about.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone want to point and laugh?

TIA :D
 
Trainz 12 runs great with Win 7 64 bit. Just make sure to install it somewhere other then the programs folder.

You may need to run it as administrator, I'm not. But I have User Account Control turned off.
 
William0d0 said:
Just make sure to install it somewhere other then the programs folder. {Snip} But I have User Account Control turned off.
Click to expand...

Part 1: Why not install it in the programs folder? And does this advice apply to all programs? I figure there are going to be some "best practices" to be learned with a new (to me) OS.

Part 2: Is having User Account Control turned off the same as having only one account in XP - by which I mean I'm always logged in as the administrator, and in fact I don't even log in, it just goes to the desktop automatically when I boot it up.
 
frogpipe said:
Part 1: Why not install it in the programs folder? And does this advice apply to all programs? I figure there are going to be some "best practices" to be learned with a new (to me) OS.

Part 2: Is having User Account Control turned off the same as having only one account in XP - by which I mean I'm always logged in as the administrator, and in fact I don't even log in, it just goes to the desktop automatically when I boot it up.
Click to expand...


UAC has nothing to do with the number of accounts, however, it does have something to do with part 1. it may interfere with trainz or cmp if you have installed it under program files, which is very protected by windows now days. easiest way to avoid it, is not to install trainz there. other applications are different. as for UAC, there should be no problems leaving it on. its the thing that will ask you if you are sure that you are sure you want to do something.
 
Oh great, so Windows 7 holds you hand even more then XP huh? Wonderful... I miss having an OS *without* training wheels...
 
Windows 7 does have tighter security than XP, but this is mainly to prevent malicious software from running without any controls.

As long as you set Trainz to run as administrator, that will sort that one out.

Shane

P.S. If you do decide to turn User Account Control off, do it before you install Trainz.
 
This may help you. A few days ago I purchased a new Lenovo Tower (i7 2600) running WIN7 64 bit with 12 GB of RAM and an ATI 6450 (marginal for TRS12) graphics card. After creating a NEW folder (C:/TRS2012) I moved my entire TRS2012 folder from my old computer (WIN7 32 bit) to the new one (not the Program Directory) via a local network. After creating a shortcut to the TRS2012 launcher on the NEW desktop, I started TRS2012 and crossed my fingers. Within seconds, TRS 2012 was up and running almost as efficiently as on my old i5, GT430 computer. I noticed about a 10FPS drop off from the old computer, but it still ran fairly smoothly. I plan on installing an ATI 6670 in the new computer very soon.

Bottom Line: WIN7 64 bit loves TRS2012 and NO NEED to re-install and update to the latest version.
 
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as a purchaser of windows 8, now this is just my opinion, i think its just flat out garbage for a desktop, i flushed 40 bucks down the drain.i went back to my windows 7 64 bit, i would pay a full oem price for windows 7 anyday over the cheap version of windows 8
 
Personally I wouldn't flush Windows 8 down the drain because a) it might block the drains and b) there are innocent living creatures down there, such as rats, which it might harm. I would prefer to take Windows 8 down a back alley on an industrial estate at night and strangle it. As for the OP you will get reasonable performance from that PC but nothing startling. The 6GB of RAM will be no good to you with XP because it can only address about 3.8GB of it.
I know people say "never buy Windows on ebay" but I did a couple of years ago and got it for about £72, half the shop price and it has been running a treat ever since.
 
"I know people say "never buy Windows on ebay" but I did a couple of years ago and got it for about £72, half the shop price and it has been running a treat ever since."


I did also, purchased WIN7 for an old XP machine that I wanted to upgrade when WIN7 first came out. The KEY that came with it did not work and MS said that it was invalid. When I complained to the seller, they sent me a new key and it worked. I am still using it on one of my machines.
 
Hello frogpipe,
I am no software guru but I have had no issues running TS12 in Windows 7. I have W7 Professional installed. If you follow the advice regarding installing TS12 into its own folder and not the default then there should be no issues. I have TS12 installed on a separate drive and the only slow down on startup is when it looks for and accesses the drive. This is only a matter of moments.
Also by installing it in its own folder you eliminate the UAC problem and do not need to play with the settings.
The only choice you need to make is which version of W7 to use. That will be personal and I am sure that you can decide what features are important to you.

Andrew.
 
I use XP home, so I figured Win7 Home Premium would be the right flavor. The only hesitation is that it appears that among other things (that don't look like they'd matter to me, just like they didn't in XP Professional) Windows 7 Professional mentions "XP Mode".

Does anyone have any practical experience with whether or not this "XP Mode" is actually useful or needed?
 
xp mode essentially runs windows xp in a virtual environment for programs that wont work under 7 natively, it even integrates into the OS so if you have an application that requires it, its simple as starting it from the desktop icon, and you will then be greeted with the usual windows xp style of window. you can also use xp stand alone inside of windows 7.
 
Good news for me is - I bought Windows 8 and Disk on November 5th, they said it was dispatched on November 12th and it has never arrived. I managed to track down a phone number for Microsoft UK and they are going to refund me! :wave:
 
frogpipe said:
I use XP home, so I figured Win7 Home Premium would be the right flavor. The only hesitation is that it appears that among other things (that don't look like they'd matter to me, just like they didn't in XP Professional) Windows 7 Professional mentions "XP Mode".

Does anyone have any practical experience with whether or not this "XP Mode" is actually useful or needed?
Click to expand...

Never needed to do anything with old software other than run it in Win7, XP mode not required here for anything and I have some fairly old software. If you read the MS blurb on it, XP mode was primarily for business's that have custom software that won't run in Win7. This page is quite informative on XP mode http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/01/windows-xp-mode/
 
tomurban said:
This may help you. A few days ago I purchased a new Lenovo Tower (i7 2600) running WIN7 64 bit with 12 GB of RAM and an ATI 6450 (marginal for TRS12) graphics card. After creating a NEW folder (C:/TRS2012) I moved my entire TRS2012 folder from my old computer (WIN7 32 bit) to the new one (not the Program Directory) via a local network. After creating a shortcut to the TRS2012 launcher on the NEW desktop, I started TRS2012 and crossed my fingers. Within seconds, TRS 2012 was up and running almost as efficiently as on my old i5, GT430 computer. I noticed about a 10FPS drop off from the old computer, but it still ran fairly smoothly. I plan on installing an ATI 6670 in the new computer very soon.

Bottom Line: WIN7 64 bit loves TRS2012 and NO NEED to re-install and update to the latest version.
Click to expand...


In the above Post, I forgot to mention that I had installed DirectX9c prior to moving my TRS2012 folder from my old machine to the new one as per Shane's tutorial. Just a reminder that Trainz will not run without 9c installed on your system.
 
I am reviving this thread because it was my own, and I have information to add to it.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought (what turned out to be an OEM version of) Windows 7 via eBay.

I had forgotten this thread, so I:

Installed trainz to it's default location (c:\program files (x86)\N3V Games\TS12)

and I did NOT install DirectX 9.

Result? It works fine. So far there's no need to run as admin, and it has DirectX 11 on it which satisfies trainzdiag.exe and the game it's self.

The only issue I have is the "sticking" whenever the HDD is accessed to load an asset - but that is NOTHING new...
 
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