RIBob

I have been going through some significant changes. A finalized divorce, planning for upcoming retirement, and a New Computer. Needless to say, the last will be of most interest to folks here. On something of a whim, I bought a Dell "Scratch and Dent" computer, which just arrived. Here: https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw%2fPR7UdRjpSk7TYUekmB3%2fa5eynSb%2fk7V1y9T5d5Dm%2bApQFACdbdCZC0Xh%2b8rMqzY92f2fdfVsCc5yLX7BiyhP53MoYDDxDFF6eGkkqALcNIewcw3AYrDZORLL8IuxBkXEgBy6hV6j89hfsOwawj2tyC2lbUZxtQ2r5HvFUBf14%2fiDOSeKCK92VJ1m1tZo4eeyrratrQ%3d%3d Finally, having graduated from Small Form Computers, I now have enough room to install and run proper graphics cards, enough RAM, and am able to finally set up a "Dual Boot" computer with modern Win 10 Pro as primary OpSys, and Win 7 Pro as secondary OpSys. The originally provided 2 TB HDD with Win 10 Home has already been upgraded to Win 10 Pro, and will be cloned onto a 2 Tb SSD, and the Win 7 Pro HDD will likewise be cloned onto a 2 Tb SDD. The new computer will be set up as a "Dual Boot" computer, so access to either OpSys will be at the click of a button, on start-up. I'll install the originally provided 2 Tb HDD into the available third drive bay for future use. The installed RAM is 16GB, DDR4 RAM with two slots vacant. While buying compatible RAM in order to double existing RAM would be fairly cheap, I will upgrade to the full 64 GB of RAM, just because. The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB DDR5) GFX card is at the lower end of VR-capable cards, and so that is a likely upgrade at some point. I am very much looking forward to VR experience while playing flight sims. As some here have mentioned, there is nothing quite like it, and some have said that they would never, willingly, revert to the usual display. I hope I have bought my last computer, upgrades excepted.

Hah! On the way to the Computer Guy, my daily driver 1996 Honda's transmission, which had been acting a bit oddly, finally packed it in. A pain, but as I have two other running cars, not a huge one. I prefer to put the mileage on the Honda, as the other cars get worse gas mileage. Car is being evaluated by my mechanic, and I will have the necessary info make a decision by the end of the week Aside from that, the rest of the day went fine, and computer guy has his my list of "wants" We'll see what I can get. It might be a Master/Slave type of Drive setup instead of Dual Boot. I cloned the 1Tb HDD on my Win 7 Computer onto a 2 Tb SSD, Installed into new computer in auxiliary slot.. Accessed the Clone of the Win 7 OpSys, and found all my games in "User" folder. Tried a few of them, and they worked OK. I'll have to investigate more, but even though that will not be as convenient as a "Dual Boot" setup, at least I will be able to play (hopefully) all the games installed on the Win 7 drive. Won't know until I access them all, and there are a lot of them. Time will tell. The problem is, as I understand it, that running a "Dual Boot" setup requires two Drives (of sufficient capacity), and separate installs of the two desired Operating Systems. After that is set up, then one can install programs on the separate drives. I mistakenly thought that simple clones of existing drives from different computers could be installed into a new computer. Not so, as Microsoft has disallowed such. Sure, I can clone a drive from an HDD onto an SDD, and it will work fine, as long as it is installed into the SAME computer. That's what people do when upgrading from HDDs to SSDs. Putting the cloned drive into a completely different computer is apparently frowned-upon by the Lords of Microsoft, may the F#%K be upon them. My Computer Guy said as much. After reading my list of "wants", he said, rather pointedly, "You have no idea how all this works, do you?". My response was "No, I don't. I have NO problem admitting my ignorance to someone who knows more about the subject than I do. That' s why I'm here. Now that I've acknowledged my ignorance, let's see how we can get me what I want, or at least close to it. That's where YOU come in." We talked, he explained, and we left with an understanding of what I wanted to accomplish, and the promise, on my part, that the deal would be a CASH transaction. The mention of a CASH transaction softened his mood considerably. We'll see how things go. Will report back later.

Thanks for the sentiment! As mentioned, I have lived well below my means for some time, and recent divorce property settlement was Very, Very much in my favor. My Lawyer asked me if my wife was mentally competent, her agreeing to my "property settlement agreement". It all went through. Sure, I lost some money, but not nearly as much as is typical. Yes, most things are working out well. Some of that is luck, some planning. For the most part, going well, indeed. In every case, have a "Plan "B". In every case, have a Plan "C". And so forth. Always glad to be your friend, RIBob

Comp came with the Vid card, so presumably it is OK. I ran IL-2 1946 on it today, with all graphic settings as suggested by the game, with no problems. Even so, the PS is easily upgradeable. I looked into that before buying. IIRC, Kensington 650 Watt P/S is something like $60 or so.

Aside from the additional storage media required, the "Dual Boot" set-up only requires making some settings changes in the Bios of one's computer. Depending on what one already has on-hand, or purchases, that could vary significantly in price. Computer Security programs and so forth must be installed of both OpSys, and periodic backup of Both OpSys will be required. Personally, I would strongly urge not skimping on the amount of storage used.

Most modern tower computers have the primary drive in a plastic caddy, which is designed to be removed from the computer without tools, after disconnecting the power and data cables. Just swap out another drive, in its identical caddy, with perhaps another OpSys, re-connect power and data cables, and your computer thinks it's a Win 7 computer instead of the original win 10. You'll need to open the side panel every time, although this is made easy on modern computers. I don't know how many install-removal cycles modern drives are expected to accomplish. so a conservative (or cautious) person would seek to minimize such, IMHO. As an aside, the laptop next to me is a Dell Latitude E6420, and has a OpSys drive port, which uses a specific caddy for the Drive-- its' current drive being a 500 Gb SSD. The computer was stated as being built to some sort of Military specification, and I reckon the drive caddies were very robust indeed--as well as their connections to the the computer itself. The drives, and their presumably more fragile connections, maybe not so stout. The drive caddies took all the connection/disconnection abuse. If one has one of these laptops, perhaps having a spare caddy available might be wise, as the wear-and-tear on the contacts would show up there first. Absent an easy and convenient method of swapping Drives, (Aforementioned Laptops being an exception), then setting up a Dual Boot system might be the simplest, and most user-friendly way to run multiple OpSys on the usual computer. The entire point of this post as well as other related threads/postings has been to find an economical. practical way for users of older computers (presumably nearing the end of their useful life) to migrate their valued games (as well as the OpSys) into a new computer. Dual Boot seems to be the optimal choice for Gamers, but YMMV. If keeping ones valued games alive was not sufficient reason to consider Dual Boot, there are other reasons. For instance, newer computers may have more powerful power supplies (Upgradeable, perhaps) which will accommodate much more advanced Graphic Cards. Newer computers will generally have more advanced Processors, which will be a distinct improvement, since the accepted knowledge is that EAW is CPU-intensive. Newer computers have more RAM, and of better/faster type. All of these things are improvements, and far preferable to one's older computer dying--along with all one's valued sims. Very modern computers may be able to use Virtual Reality software/hardware. There are some that say using such transforms the game into a completely immersive experience. At the risk of being redundant, I will mention that upgrading the RAM of your computer is very easy, and always useful. Just go to Crucial.com, download their analyzer program, and see what their RAM suggestions might be. You can delete the program afterwards. As far as your CPU goes, and again being redundant, I've upgraded 2 computers recently. Following detailed videos on YouTube, it was fairly simple. Just search "Upgrade CPU on >your exact model/brand of computer<" Desktop went from I5 to I7, and laptop went from I3 to I5. In both cases, I played it safe by upgrading CPUs to those that were originally offered in the respective computers. In doing so, I ensured that the new CPUs were not only guaranteed to fit, but the cooling system of the computers could handle the upgrade. The User Manual of your particular computer will give the details as to the different CPUs with which it was shipped. When swapping CPUs, the only mandatory accessory is some heat-sink paste. Absolutely required, but a very small amount will do. The discussion about SSDs vs. HDDs is over, as far as I am concerned. The SSDs are so much faster to boot, and transfer data so much faster, that the HDDs are becoming dinosaurs, and relegated to deep storage and System Recovery. Crucial.com has a very nice (free, but hard to find) Acronis Program for cloning Drives. I've used it a few times, with zero problems. "Cloning" means making an exact copy of an existing SSD/HDD and transferring it to another SSD/HDD. Such cloned drives are fully useful as "bootable" drives. "Cloning" is NOT "Copying". Blabbing on too much. All well-intentioned, but please do your research as pertains to your particular application(s).

As some may know, my personal goal is to establish a Virtual Machine in my Win 10 (PRO) computer, using relatively decent I7 processor and decent RAM in order to play older games which are best suited to an earlier Operating System, to wit; Win 7 PRO. The advantage of Win 7 PRO is that it is relatively friendly to a lot of games written for earlier Operating Systems (some of them having been modified), and that it contains within it the ability to enable an internal Win XP Op Sys for some games that require such. sort of a 'Two-Fer". The benefits are that the "Computer within a Computer" (the VM) will be better suited to run many games, not the least of which is EAW, using the more advanced processor, greater RAM, and better graphics cards available to more modern computers. Set up properly, the VM will be able to communicate with the Internet, and so be able to download new versions of games, or update existing versions. Naturally, certain precautions must be made, such as Anti-virus protection and so forth, just as would be done with any Operating System connected with the Internet. In sum, the VM will be its own semi-independent environment, existing as a user-configurable entity within the Host computer environment. The downside to all this is that enough HDD (or, preferably, SDD) storage space must be available. Games take up a lot of storage, so this capacity is essential I am setting aside about 1TB on a 2 TB SSD on my Win 10 computer for this VM, the remainder of storage space on that SSD being assignable--and useable-- as I wish . The Win 10 OpSys (Host) is set up on a separate 1Tb SSD, and has been deliberately kept as lean as possible, with no stone left unturned to turn-off unwanted Windows features, and making an active attempt to eliminate unwanted/undesirable bloatware. The main point is to not only calculate HDD/SSD space based on the Games, but also the amount of storage for the required OpSys as well. So, it adds up. I have begun by designating 1/4 of my RAM to the VM--I can change that as needs be. This allocation only pertains while the VM is running; otherwise all RAM is available to Host computer. Needless to say, the VM can be turned "ON" or "OFF" at will. My original Win 7 computer, with its' Core2Duo processor was surprisingly good at modern graphics, but with its' non-upgradable CPU and power supply, was clearly at the end of its useful life, as far as modern gaming goes. The vastly more capable I7 Win 10 machine will hopefully allow me many more years of gaming while I save up for an even better machine. All the SSDs will be transferred to the future machine, so the expense of the SSDs will be set against their use far into the future. More to come.

Mark, I think that is wise on both accounts. In my ignorance, I formerly believed VM to be the answer to ageing computers, allowing the existing Win 7 (or whatever) OpSys to run within a modern Win 10 OpSys. After learning a bit more, it seems that the VM approach is not nearly as suitable--for the Gamer--as is a "Dual Boot" machine, wherein separate hard drives exist with their own programs and Op Systems, and the user chooses which to use at start-up. The dual Boot method allows both programs to use all of the computers resources, not designated fractions, and is rather easier to configure. So, good on you.

I have seen Dell laptops with an HDD/SDD "bay" into which one slides a specific "drive caddy", into which is installed an SSD/HDD of one's choice. Sitting next to one now, as chance would have it. A neat solution, but few other types of computers have such "Quick Remove/Replace" features. I definitely don't think the SSD/HDD drive/caddy assy is "hot-swappable", though.

IIRC, one of the FUNDAMENTAL considerations of the Pilots of bombing aircraft was to maintain Formation. Doing so increased bombing effectiveness, and also enhanced the mutual support of the bombers' guns. Aircraft that were hit by enemy fire, in sufficient amount, would jettison their bomb loads in order to remain with the formation. Presumably, this historically-correct action might be modeled in relevant flight scenarios, if possible. I have no idea if it is possible (From your comments, I suspect so, but might be mistaken) but even some sort of common-sense jettisoning of bombs by damaged bombers would be a (realistic) step forward. I understand that absolute adherence to reality is not always the best way to design a flight sim. Maybe sometimes it is. YMMV. As always, submitted for your consideration, and with all good intent. RIBob

Mark, having just read a bit on your site, I don't see where the original OpSys ('95/'98 ?) for the various versions of the games were specifically mentioned during the historical discussion. Maybe some users looking into running EAW in native environment might want that info. Also, if some future OpSys were less-than-useful, might be worthwhile to mention such. We all know Win 7 seems to be a "sweet spot", but that is probably because of a lot of Modders taking specific measures to adapt EAW to that particular OpSys. Newcomer users will necessarily concerned about Win 10. As I have opined before, the opportunity for a Win 10 User, just discovering EAW, to easily download and play EAW is absolutely essential to the Game's survival. They can always dig deeper for other versions of the Sim, but having an easily accessible, and easily playable version of EAW for newcomer Win 10 users remains []essential, IMHO. YMMV. Regardless of which approach is taken towards playing the game, and by that I mean single OpSys, Multi-Boot, or VM, prospective users might benefit from knowing which OpSys to favor, and those to avoid. As always, submitted for your consideration, and with all good intentions. Sincerely, RIBob

Well, as I learn things, I try to pass them along. Looks like "Dual-Boot" might be distinctly preferable for gamers as dual-booting does not divide computer resources as does VM. Seems simpler to set-up, although care must be taken to do so. As you mentioned in another thread, having external drive caddies with replaceable OpSys is an even simpler choice, but I don't know how the drives and caddies will hold up to repeated insertion/re-insertion; maybe best to have separate, dedicated caddies for all desired OpSys, and one for back-up use, as needed. Work in progress.

So, let's see if I understand your concept: One has one (or more) external SSD/HDD caddies attached to the computer. There is no "Boot" SSD/HDD in the computer itself; one turns on the external caddy containing the SSD/HDD one wishes to use, then turns on the computer. By default, the computer boots using the OpSys contained in the caddy that has been previously turned ON. Is that right?

Mark, I've come to radically reconsider my former ideas on Windows Virtual Machine, and been dragged, by people knowing a lot more than I do, into the "dual/Multiple" Boot machine. See info: https://www.howtogeek.com/187789/dual-booting-explained-how-you-can-have-multiple-operating-systems-on-your-computer/ Yet another alternative to the Virtual Machine approach is the "Dual Boot" approach. This is rather simpler than the VM scheme, and does not require devoting a minimum amount of RAM to the VM, and the rest being devoted to the Host machine. Nor does one need to own a "PRO"--or higher-- version of Windows to go Dual boot. OTOH, it requires enough storage space to support both the desired OpSys and the games/programs which one intends to run on it. My computer guy is trying hard to persuade me against using VM for the gaming application which was my original intention. As always, the fundamental goal is to transfer my Win 7 Pro OpSys--and virtually all my games-- away from the non-upgradable Small Form Factor Dell OptiPlex, and onto a much more upgradeable, modern tower computer. Eventually, I want to experiment with Virtual Reality, and none of the computers I now own will allow that. Not made of money, but I live below my means, and have saved-up for a while. Seems like the "Dual Boot" alternative might meet my needs, as I have plenty of 1 Tb and a 2 TB SSD lying around. Will update as the situation allows; new computer shouls arrive shortly, so stay tuned. RIBob

No problem, Mark. I admit I am a fan of realistic portrayals of visual images, but anything I say is my suggestion, and never a "Demand". I'm in no position to make any "demands" whatsoever. My suggestions are stated for "informational" purposes, and to be incorporated, or ignored as the Modders see fit. it's true that EAW is a little "Arcade" but is making it even more so a good idea? If possible, should we be making the visual depictions less "Arcade" and more realistic? Which depiction has more benefit for the EAW game overall? I also understand that adherence to "true-to-life" visual effects may not be what is desired/expected by most users. Then again, what "most" users want is very different from what the experienced, educated players want. I've played enough flight sims to know that some go a little bit overboard in the display of some of their visual effects. OTOH, the best, modern flight sims seem to rely on the innate quality of the images displayed. Well-meaning people can disagree about the level of visual images displayed in a flight sim. I prefer more realistic images, some will differ. It's all OK, and like I said, well-meaning people can differ, without being difficult.

Yet another alternative to the Virtual Machine approach is the "Dual Boot" approach. This is rather simpler than the VM scheme, and does not require devoting a minimum amount of RAM to the VM, and the rest being devoted to the Host machine. Nor does one need to own a "PRO"--or higher-- version of Windows to go Dual boot. OTOH, it requires enough storage space to support both the desired OpSys and the games/programs which one intends to run on it. My computer guy is trying hard to persuade me against using VM for the gaming application which was my original intention. As always, the fundamental goal is to transfer my Win 7 Pro OpSys--and virtually all my games-- away from the non-upgradable Small Form Factor Dell OptiPlex, and onto a much more upgradeable, modern tower computer. Eventually, I want to experiment with Virtual Reality, and none of the computers I now own will allow that. Not made of money, but I live below my means, and have saved-up for a while. Seems like the "Dual Boot" alternative might meet my needs, as I have plenty of 1 Tb and a 2 TB SSD lying around. Will update as the situation allows; new computer shouls arrive shortly, so stay tuned. RIBob

As I recall, during the Battle of Britain, the Brit fighters being able to cause the German bombers to break formation and scatter was considered (at the time) something of a success, as the bomber force could not re-group in time to deliver a concentrated blow on the target. The number of German bombers being shot down was a very useful bonus. The bombers being scattered, and out of formation, they usually jettisoned their bombs (usually to no purpose), and thus relieved of the weight, tried to rally for the trip home. I think that we players of flight sims overlook the broader aspect of things. For example, the sacrifice of the US Navy Torpedo squadrons during the Battle of Midway that drove down the Japanese fighter planes, and so paved the way for the Navy Bomber squadrons--without fighter opposition-- to devastate the Japanese Carrier force. In short, some bomber missions might be considered a 'Success" if the target was hard-hit, and even if no bombers returned. I don't think there is any sort of accounting for this sort of semi-suicide scenario. In fact, and please excuse my ignorance, I'm unaware of any "Victory Conditions" in any scenario in the EAW world. Aside for the individual pilot coming home, that is. Granted, this changes in a Career Mode/scenario. The ability of the German bombers to defend themselves should be realistically portrayed. Not an expert, but the German bombers had too few large caliber guns to accomplish this end, and the guns were not always properly emplaced for their intended purpose. Witness the American bomber effort, with far better armed bombers, and the losses they suffered until fighter escort became available. I applaud any and all efforts to make the EAW game more realistic. Thanks, VBH!

As far as I am concerned, the VM machine approach is undertaken in order to allow vintage games to be played in native OpSys, since future OpSys will very likely deny this option. I sincerely hope your aged computer, using an extinct Operating System, continues working for you far, and far, into the future. Maybe it might fail, for inexplicable reason. If you have backed-up everything, where will you go? I might suggest that betting that everything goes "just right" might be a bad bet. Hence my approach. YMMV. All I am saying is that users of various games should carefully consider their options, and spread around their alternatives/options.

I hope that will not be necessary. The VM is being configured to access the internet through, and to use the graphics card in, the Host machine. I hope connection to the internet can be accomplished by using various programs existing in host machine, as that would save some space and processor resources. I know the games/programs in the VM are compatible with the graphics card installed in the host machine, as well as the peripherals attached to it. I hope that answers your question. As can be seen, the VM being set up is a rather unusual one, and a robust one. There are complications in setting up the connection to the internet through the host machine, as well as sharing peripherals. Internet connection to the VM is not strictly necessary, but, I believe, a time-saver, given my intended application. I could get along without it, if need be. In such a case, I'd set-up/modify the game intended for use in the VM in the Host machine, transfer it, and test/run it in VM machine.

I'm a little unclear as to the meaning of your question; could you please expand and re-phrase it?

Answer to your primary question provided above. Looking at the system specs you provided in your Sig-Line, I see that your particular Edition of Win 10 is "Home" edition. Sorry, Hyper-V is not supported by that particular Edition, only "Pro" edition and above. You have two alternatives should you wish to establish a VM on your computer, and this assumes that you have checked and found your machine to be physically capable of running VM --link to do so provided above: 1) Upgrade your version of Win 10 "Home" to Win 10 "PRO", using a product key. This usually costs money, but sometimes not a lot. The software you want is already within Win 10, just not accessible without the correct Win 10 "Pro" product key, which seems to be about $147 USD on Amazon. By the way, I got lucky and used an Unused Win 7 PRO product key to upgrade my Win 10 Home laptop to Win 10 PRO. It worked perfectly. 2) Use an aftermarket suite of VM software. Search "Virtual Machine", and some providers will pop up. Do your research carefully, and make your choice. Sometimes such software is free, sometimes not. Here's a list of some of the offerings: https://www.lifewire.com/best-virtual-machine-software-4147437

The first thing one should do, if contemplating use of Virtual Machine technology, is to determine whether or not one's computer is able to run it. This link provides some basic instructions for investigating VM compatibility, as well as Tools/Utilities for both Intel and AMD CPU users to make a final determination: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/check-intel-amd-processor-supports-hyper-v In short, if considering VM, make sure, by using the link above, that your computer is able to do so.

That's correct; I am using the Hyper V (Virtual Machine) feature (Default: Disabled) already present in the "PRO"--or higher versions --of Win 7, 8, and 10.

Thanks for your very kind comments, Mark. I have always respected your steady, and ongoing, contributions to the EAW Community, whilst not allowing yourself to be drawn into needless conflict. I think that you have made a far greater impact to the EAW Community than you give yourself credit for, as your Help Site allows people having copies of the game to be finally able to play them, and perhaps to progress to more elaborate versions of the Game. That most definitely includes me. Every single person in the EAW Community owes you a great deal for your efforts. My saying so is simple acknowledgement of your longstanding efforts. Thanks! RIBob

Mark, I am what I am. A simple user of the game. I was not able to play the game until I read your Help Site, and followed the directions exactly. I will always be in your debt for that. As for anything else, I am a simple User, and certainly no programmer or anything else. Maybe sometimes I ask some questions, or make suggestions, to be incorporated or ignored as seen fit. I have zero doubt that your Help site is the fundamental reason why EAW still has legs. Without you, and your Site, the Game would have died long ago. Thanks for what you've done, and continuing to do. People like you count, people like me don't. RIBob