Following a tip from a friend, last night I found FSX Deluxe and Standard versions on the shelf for sale at my local Best Buy store. I picked up the last copy of the Deluxe version (at list price $69.99) and high-tailed it home to install it.
First thing I did was clear everything off my system's 2nd hard drive that has 20 gigs of space and reformat it so I could make this a dedicated drive for FSX. After the reformat, it took about 1 hours to install the 2 DVDs that comes with the program (the only option is a full install). Now my 20 gig hard drive was 3/4 full, thats about 15 gigs just for FSX out of the box! Too bad FSX doesn't include a 40 gig hard drive with the package. Something tells me my 20 gig hard drive will not be big enough for add-ons down the road.
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
The program must be activated using the Microsoft code key that comes with FSX for full function. But no more having to have the disk in the drive to run FSX. By this time it was getting late in the evening so all I had time to do was load the program and take a look at the setup screens and take a quick look around sitting in one of the aircraft. I must say that the "eye-candy" of FSX looks better than FS9. There were cars and trucks driving around on the roads near the airport and service trucks running around the airport. Microsoft did changed some of the key commands for views and I am sure other things. You know how Microsoft is, they just can't leave things alone so now we get to re-learn the program all over again.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
I will try to add more comments soon after I get a chance to do some test flights.