Simviation Forums

Hi, I tried downloading a free demo from ORBX (Pacific Northwest). I've never had orbx before so I downloaded the required "FTX Central". After getting past McAfee telling me its a dangerous download I went ahead and got it. when it opened I got 2 screens, the first said to choose a simulator but I couldn't click on anything and there were no choices. The other screen was a log in screen that wouldn't let me click on anything. I uninstalled it. I would like to try the scenery but if I cant even get it to install I'm not sure. Am I doing something wrong?
I'm running windows 8.1
Intel Core i5-4440 cpu@3.10 GHz
Ram: 12.0GB
64 bit OS, x64 based processor
NVidia GeForce GT635
(C:) drive has 753GB free space
Everything installs and runs on Seagate external (I:)drive with 930GB with 430 GB free space.

slimcooper2002 wrote:Hi, I tried downloading a free demo from ORBX (Pacific Northwest). I've never had orbx before so I downloaded the required "FTX Central". After getting past McAfee telling me its a dangerous download I went ahead and got it. when it opened I got 2 screens, the first said to choose a simulator but I couldn't click on anything and there were no choices. The other screen was a log in screen that wouldn't let me click on anything. I uninstalled it. I would like to try the scenery but if I cant even get it to install I'm not sure. Am I doing something wrong?
I'm running windows 8.1
Intel Core i5-4440 cpu@3.10 GHz
Ram: 12.0GB
64 bit OS, x64 based processor
NVidia GeForce GT635
(C:) drive has 753GB free space
Everything installs and runs on Seagate external (I:)drive with 930GB with 430 GB free space.

If you got a warning from McAfee it could have quarantined a need file you need to check to see if it did. The other possibility is it might be a bad download after all.
Where did you download it from?
The odds are the warning you got is what is called a false positive. I know that Norton will quarantine a file from one of my programs right after it has updated and I have to go to the quarantined folder click on the file and restore it and than tell Norton to ignore it.
Make sure you get the demo from ORBX main site
https://orbxdirect.com/product/pnw-demo

Did you download the needed ORBX libraries

I got it from the orbx site. I didnt read or see where I needed orbx librarys, I'll have another look. With McAfee it usually warns you and gives you the option of accepting the risk or backing up. Never had the quarantine a file unless it was already on my comp. Thank you.

I just downloaded FTX Central v3.1.0.2 and I'm getting the same screens. (McAfee says its safe today, lol.)
I cant click on anything but "close". I'm logged in at their site, and it wont let me get to the log in screen without picking a simulator first but I cant pick a simulator. Either them or me is screwed up here.

On their site I've tried going to the forums but all questions looking for support are sent to the "support forums" When I click on that link I get "That page cannot be found". I'd really like to try Orbx but they are sounding kind of shady.

Orbx are not "shady" but the new download system is a pain. I have stopped buying their products because of this.

I don't really think they are shady, its just frustrating trying to navigate their site. And no support forums. Have you figured out the new download system?

Of the three top mods in my install of FSX:SE is ORBX Pacific Northwest. I live here in Portland and have flown IRL here dozens of times so I'm pretty familiar with the area.
Of course it doesn't hurt that their Freeware version of Downtown PDX is second to none but still pretty outstanding for a bunch of blokes from Oz. I'm curious what turned you off about the download process? Mine was pretty painless once I figured out how to actually direct my support query. I had an old un-converted FSS ticket that I used to visit the forums and create an account there which baffled me even further. I then got smart and submitted a ticket with my FSS Invoice number to the drop-down conveniently available for same from the main ORBX site and a wonderful person got a hold of me within an hour. They sent an enquiry on my behalf to Flightsim Store and all was sorted within two hours entire. Had a bit of install and loading order confusion on my end but I soon sorted that. The only thing I'm not too keen on is that they don't let you fiddle with the options within FTX outside of where to put the directories. Otherwise essential stuff for me at least as I almost always fly local VFR so it's worth the trade-off.

It looks like when you installed it, FTX Central wasn't able to find your flight sim files.

I must be missing it, but What flight sim are you using, and Where is it located?

For instance, I have the boxed version of FSX on drive E, and Prepar3d on drive F.

However the first time that I ran FTX Central I believe that I had to point it to the right directory on the F drive.

After that one time I've never had to tell it where to go.


As far as I know, all of their area demos, like Iceland, come with complete files for that area. I bought Pacific Northwest, but I'd assume that it would be the same.


Last - A & B

A - If your flight sim is located on the C drive within the Program Files (x86) directory, some of those files may be "protected" from change. If you've been using your sim all along then It should be OK.

B - Anti-virus programs can be a real beech. McAfee might have kept some parts of the demo from installing.

Turn off McAfee and see if it runs. If not, you may have to uninstall both Pacific Northwest and FTX Central with McAfee turned off. THEN re-install them again, paying very careful attention to the instillation.


I have a lot of the Orbx scenery installed, essentially on three drives. No problems.

You have a problem on YOUR computer. Resolving the problem will be well worth your time.

I probably would have stopped "flying" if it wasn't for the improvements of the Orbx scenery.


Orbx scenery - 3W5 Concrete, Washington (Just compare that to the "standard" FSX scenery)

Hi OAM, I'm running FSX Gold, I had to purchase it online and download it as my old boxed set would not install on my new(at the time) computer. I have it and CFS2 installed on Drive I. I dont put anything on Drive C unless I have too. This will be the first scenery I've tried and I want to try the free demo of Oregon since I live in Northern Cal.before I put out any $$. You mentioned that you had to point FTX to FSX, Where do you do that? The only thing I can click is the close button. I'm gonna try turning off McAfee, then uninstall everything, then reinstall. I hope it works. I need to spice up the game a little.

FSX will always try to install to Drive C. You need to point it to any other Drive in the install options.
Orbx usually will install in whichever Drive FSX is using

Did you mean FTX Central will always install on C drive? My FSX is installed on another drive and I'm not getting any install options for FTX. I would love to point it in the right direction, but it doesn't give me that option. Ive checked my registry and everything looks ok. The game works fine. I feel like its something simple but I'm just not seeing it. Last night I turned off my virus protection and firewall to see if that helped on a new fresh download but I got the same results.

I have 2 PC's on which I have used both FSX and Orbx
One only has a C Drive and FSX installs to that automatically with Orbx also going straight to C Drive (FSX Deluxe)
The other I have on F Drive where I manually changed FSX to that drive when I installed it (FSX Acceleration). It tries to default to C but I change it.
For this Orbx automatically goes to F Drive obviously after installing FSX.
My C Drive on this 2nd machine is only 240 GB which is why I use a larger 3.0 TB on F
Both FSX are (fairly old) box editions

jefflar wrote:I have 2 PC's on which I have used both FSX and Orbx
One only has a C Drive and FSX installs to that automatically with Orbx also going straight to C Drive (FSX Deluxe)
The other I have on F Drive where I manually changed FSX to that drive when I installed it (FSX Acceleration). It tries to default to C but I change it.
For this Orbx automatically goes to F Drive obviously after installing FSX.
My C Drive on this 2nd machine is only 240 GB which is why I use a larger 3.0 TB on F
Both FSX are (fairly old) box editions

Forget about the C drive the letter C is just that a Letter C the reason why most systems have a C drive goes back to the days when systems came with a Floppy drive and it was considered the first drive therefore it had the letter A was assigned to it and if you had a CD drive that was assigned the letter B that meant the next drive that your operating system would be on would be assigned the letter C
You can change the designation of any drive in your systems you can make your C drive a X or Y drive or any letter you want. As a rule of thumb whichever drive has your operating system on it regardless of the letter will become your default drive. My self I have a C drive a B drive and an E drive MY E drive is an external 3.2 USB 1 TB drive. I have fsx on my B drive and FS9 on my E drive . Now there are programs that need to be installed on the same drive as the program it is going to work with but usually you will find a readme file that will let you know if you need to install a program on a special drive or folder on a special drive.
A good example of a program that does not require to be installed on the same drive as the program it will use is FSMAP it is a great moving map program that really comes in handy when landing at an unfamiliar airports it shows the complete diagram of any airport on your system complete with runway and taxiway markings. It installed on my C drive but all I have to do is to tell it where FSX and FS9 or at and it does the rest
Microsoft uses the alphabet to assign drive letters starting with the letter A. I have a micro card reader which plugs into a USB HUB and If I put cards in it I will have H ,I, and J drives
So like I said forget about the drive letter it is just a way for your system to know what drive a program is on nothing else.
I would say that your problem has nothing to do with where it is installed. Some other issue is what you need to figure out.
When I tried to run the FTX program I got the same message you got select which simulator but at the time the system I was using was at my place of work and does not have any FS programs on it needles to say.
I meant to check it out when I got home but got side tracked by playing ZELDA the Legend of SKYSWORD on my new Nintendo WII console.

Well I know it probably wasn't the smartest way to do it but I just copy and pasted fsx from my external drive to the one my os is on and I didn't make a shortcut to the new location. I uninstalled ftx central again and reinstalled it. I got the same screens so I hovered over the icon in the task tray and closed the "select simulator" screen. The log in window stayed open but was still unclickable so I gave up on it and went to doing something else. I noticed about an hour later it was still open and when I went to close it I found I could log in. after that I was able to download all 3 free demos. They work great! I dont know if copying my game to the other drive did it because when I click the shortcut it opens fsx in the original spot since I didn't make a new shortcut. I wish I had an answer but thank you to everyone that responded.