Oldish Games On DVD And SecDRV

Vern1961 · 13 Jan 2017 at 08:56

As I'm getting back into FSX, on a whim last night decided to reinstall all my accumulated Just Flight aircraft and scenery add-ons collected on DVD over the years. Unfortunately ran into the snag that Win 10 no longer permits the SecDRV copy protection which Just Flight use to authenticate the installer, apparently deemed a security threat. Visiting JF support page offered a utility to overcome the issue in Win 7/8 (where I don't recall a problem anyway) but Win 10 receives a virtual shoulder shrug.

Quick look around the net shows a wall of silence from M$ on the issue, even on their own support forum. One location offered a batch file supposed to push SecDRV under Win 10 but that didn't work. I've contacted Just Flight suggesting they either exchange my discs for ones which don't use SecDRV or the alternative of a digital download. Not holding my breath though and in the meantime I've got over £200 of effectively useless software sat on the shelf.

Not like there's much point trying to sell on Ebay as even if I note the Win 10/SecDRV issue, some numpty will end up buying then raising a dispute because they didn't read the caveat.

Can anyone suggest a (legal) means of getting the installers to work as I'm sure this doesn't just affect Just Flight titles?

ci_newman · 13 Jan 2017 at 09:34

Dual-boot with Windows 7?

Vern1961 · 13 Jan 2017 at 10:16

ci_newman said:
Dual-boot with Windows 7?

That might be an option if I can figure out how to do it. My Win 10 was an on-line upgrade over the existing Win 7 OEM install. Will see what Just Flight come back with first, though.

dreigns · 13 Jan 2017 at 16:40

You can't and don't try last time I forced it to install and run it killed my windows install best is installing on the correct OS
Like yourself I have ton's of games on dvd but with old protection stuff lucky I build a pc just for them

Vern1961 · 13 Jan 2017 at 18:20

As suspected Just Flight not interested - not "their" fault... mine for upgrading to Win 10 and MS for removing and prohibiting secdrv. Basically pay again or get lost.

Cheers, then.

Monkeynut · 13 Jan 2017 at 18:32

Install Win7 in a virtual machine, install them into that, and then copy the data into your Windows 10 install?

Vern1961 · 14 Jan 2017 at 08:06

Narrowed it down to three titles with the issue which isn't quite so bad. Not going to risk borking my PC for a few add-on aircraft.

As an aside I presume some other non Flight Sim/Train Sim titles are affected by this - I've heard mention of the Total War releases from the mid '00s, old Freelancer (actually a M$ title!) and Crysis which would be a loss?

pingu666 · 15 Jan 2017 at 00:05

FYI the steam version of fsx runs much better than the old dvd version

Puzzled · 15 Jan 2017 at 01:16

Pretty sure with Crysis you can put the cd key straight into Origin.

nashathedog · 15 Jan 2017 at 11:46

Vern1961 said:
As I'm getting back into FSX, on a whim last night decided to reinstall all my accumulated Just Flight aircraft and scenery add-ons collected on DVD over the years. Unfortunately ran into the snag that Win 10 no longer permits the SecDRV copy protection which Just Flight use to authenticate the installer, apparently deemed a security threat. Visiting JF support page offered a utility to overcome the issue in Win 7/8 (where I don't recall a problem anyway) but Win 10 receives a virtual shoulder shrug.

Quick look around the net shows a wall of silence from M$ on the issue, even on their own support forum. One location offered a batch file supposed to push SecDRV under Win 10 but that didn't work. I've contacted Just Flight suggesting they either exchange my discs for ones which don't use SecDRV or the alternative of a digital download. Not holding my breath though and in the meantime I've got over £200 of effectively useless software sat on the shelf.

Not like there's much point trying to sell on Ebay as even if I note the Win 10/SecDRV issue, some numpty will end up buying then raising a dispute because they didn't read the caveat.

Can anyone suggest a (legal) means of getting the installers to work as I'm sure this doesn't just affect Just Flight titles?

If you go too the drm makers website you may find a workaround made by them.

STALKER Call of Pripyat has the same problem, The DVD version cannot be used with Win 10 because the DRM it used was deemed a security risk and blocked, I went to the DRM's website looking for a fix and they had a list of games that were affected and a list of fixes for some of the games.

Sadly STALKER was not in the fixed list but GOG will give you a free digital copy of the game if you provide them with the code that comes in the Box with the DVD.

Vern1961 · 16 Jan 2017 at 08:23

As a final report, I reached a compromise solution with Just Flight with regard to the issue. Guess the moral of the story is that buying (or licensing) a game or add-on software does not guarantee ad-infinitum access without having to pay again - even if not the purchaser's fault!