Windows7 and XP in a home network for Prepar3D

When I installed Prepar3D on my computer I assigned it to a vacant drive, assuming that during the installation a separate folder would be created with the name Prepar3D. That didn't happen and now the Prepar3D FlightSmulator is installed on the drive as a collection of folders and files.

This became problematic when I wanted to have a Flight Planning programm on a second computer using a home network. More specifically: sharing a wholedrive, in my case the H-drive

I will outline the steps used to allow access to this H-drive.

(my computer uses the Dutch language, an English translation is shown on a white background)

Open the explorer and select (right mouse click!) the H-drive in the selection menu of the Computer root and click on the Properties entry.

The Properties window appears, first click on the Sharing tab

Then press Advanced Sharing.

Place a check mark in the box Share this folder.

After check-marking the box the window is activated, then press Permissions.

 

A new window appears with Everyone already selected in the usernames section at the top. Enter check-marks in the boxes not yet marked: Full control and Change. Then press Apply.

Press, OK, then OK again, to return to the drive properties window.

Now we need to apply the share procedure again!!

Press the Security tab, a new window appears. Then click on Edit.

 In “Group and User names” there is no “everyone” entry, so this name needs to be added.

Press the Add button.

 A new window allows Everyone to be typed into the lower section.

Type “everyone”.

 Then press OK.

 Now there is “everyone” listed in the upper section. Select the entry “everyone”

Notice that in the permission section in the lower part of the window, Full Control and Change have not been checked.

 Place check marks in the Full Control and in the Change boxes (1).

Then press the Apply button (2).

Now press OK to return to the drive properties window.

 Now open explorer and look at the Prepar3D-drive  image in the root of your computer, the image has changed, it shows that this drive is being shared.

The H-drive, with the name "Prep3D-opslag", is now configured to be shared. Applications like SimConnect can now be used successfully.

Runway Lighting

The default settings for the lighting on and around the runways is often very unrealistic. Some airports ae visible at long distance just because of the bright VASI lights. On the other hand, when having to land in low visibility conditions, like heavy fog, seeing the approach lighting on time is very helpfull. 

The specific changing of the brightness can be accomplished with entries in the FSX.cfg, or Prepar3D.cfg files. These files in Windows7/8 are located in: C:\users\ Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX   C:\users\ Name\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepare3D 

When this cfg file is opened in NotePad the following lines can be inserted in the section: 

[Display]

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.75
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.5
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.75
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.65 

The values can be adapted. Lowering the VASI number has a significant effect.