Windows bug or...

[FridayChild]

I stumbled across one of the many Windows XP tweaks (some of them good, some useless, some plain bad) suggested on the Internet:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl\Win32PrioritySeparation
The suggestion was to change this value from 2 (default) to 26 to increase the processor time devoted to the foreground application, subtracting it from the time devoted to background tasks (= good for FS2004; bad for a web server).
BUT...
I found another web site, devoted to demystifying myths about tweaks, which said that basically this operation is useless because that 26 value is already the default, and can be easily changed with Control Panel-System-Advanced-Performance -Settings-Advanced-Processor Scheduling - Programs (this btw is the default setting in Windows XP Pro).
WELL
I opened the aforementioned Control Panel applet and the setting was the default one (optimize for PROGRAMS). BY THE WAY the above mentioned registry key was set to "2".
SO
I just clicked PROGRAMS again in the Control Panel and clicked APPLY (that is, I reapplied the setting which was supposedly already in place).
And sure enough, now the registry key read "26"!!!

I will check if I notice any performance gain in FS2004; anyway I'm running Windows XP SP2 and I never messed with that registry key before, so it's likely to be a bug.
What is YOUR registry key reading btw? 2 or 26?

[congo]

You could be right about it being a bug, nice spot.

[FridayChild]

Have you had the same behaviour?

[congo]

I'm not positive, I'm going to install a drive in the next day or two, so I'll check it.

[beaky]

When I re-applied mine, it went from (2) to (38) (?!). I may do some flying tonight; might be interesting.

[FridayChild]

woops, the emoticon hides the number, but i assume it is "38" which is the decimal form of "26" hexadecimal, so your case is identical to mine.
[...omissis...]

[FridayChild]

I may be wrong, but since [this] [...omissis again...] I have almost never saw a frame rate drop. True I don't fly over densely populated areas, but it's stuck on 25 fps. Good!