So I am trying to load the History SFX mod, and I find that I only have 5 GB left on my drive. I go to Control Panel / Add and Remove Programs to get rid of some of the excess, and I find 11.5 GB devoted to the program FS MODS. Does everyone else have this, why is it there with the mods installed, and can I trash it?

S!~ Space,

When you say "I go to Control Panel / Add and Remove Programs to get rid of some of the excess, and I find 11.5 GB devoted to the program FS MODS." I have to wonder if that's the .exe file or not. If it's the .exe file you should have no problem getting rid of it, since it's basically the "envelope" that the program came in. However, if you are looking at "Add/Remove Programs" I am wondering if it will uninstall the MODS.

If it were me I would make copies of the related Fogotten Skies MOD folders and then do the uninstall. If it removes the entire MOD then just put the folders back. I know for certain you can remove the .exe file, though. You can do that manually.

S~
Yeah...what tiger said, I have an external HD that I put all the little extra in the world I need, to include a back up of a workable IL2, just in case my ole butt screws somthing up. These mods are nice, but like I said before, some of this is getting hard to keep up with, I mean do we actually need mods that do something like turn a yellow knob blue in the cockpit, when it comes to flying, isn't it the thrill of the kill that means more?? Is Kayne West a legitimate performer??

~S~

The Mods have brought back Life to IL-2 with a lot of proper aircraft modeling, historical representation of the M2 .50 Cal and the upcoming belted ammo AP / tracer mix, newer enhanced maps and then some extra goodies that will be rolling out with UI 1.2 and later 1.3 versus the garbage we were given as a game by Oleg and company over the last 9 years. So to answer your question, YES ! the mods are fantastic. Its just a matter of getting up to speed with them and knowing how to activate them.

No, do not Add/Remove the FS Mods, in general this will remove the 'application' and all program specific data, folders, registry entries, from the system and hard disk drive. In this case all the FS mod folders/files installed by the FS mod Installer would be removed.

Specificly, you may delete the 'fs_mods.exe' file that you originally downloaded and installed.

You can remove other 'mod' package stuff, for example, if you have extracted/expanded it to a separate folder, e.g. "FS_OfficialAddOns_Version1.1" folder then you can delete this folder, or *.zip/*.rar files if you don't think you will ever need them again.

If it wasn't for the 'garbage' Oleg and team put out we woudn't even have IL2 now. . I always find it funny when someone cries it is all Oleg's fault. He gave us a starting point. . what have you given us?

If you have given us a mod, than my hat is off to you. . if not .....

To be honest I never found anything wrong with the vanilla version of the game. A bit less options and generic sounds...but all in all it was just fine. One of the best offline WWII flight sims I have flown.

The mods however make it that much nicer...just started using mods in August - and they make a nice immersion difference. But they don't 100% change the landscape of the game...they merely add to it.

S~
To re-elaborate what I was saying about the whole mod thing, is yes they bring better dimensions to the game, but I am starting to see a few of the campaign sites where you have to: have 4.09 w/ zutti on, or partially off, HistoryX, moving dogfights, dinging cow bells, green clovers, yellow moons etc. to fly the campaign. I really don't fly to enjoy the nice smoke effects, I fly because I like the thrill of either being the shooter or the shootie, more so the shootie with my skills. I do enjy the mods, but for instance, the one campaign where you have to have a whole other IL2 file separate from the AAA mods, well, there goes a chunk of gigs for the ole hard drive , which is what Space was talking about. I have messed with flight sims for going on ten years, and I am to a point now, that with all the updates and mods on, or mods off, it either leaves me confused, or sitting trying to figure out where the timeout 1 is coming from what mod that I forgot to turn off or on. I am not condemning mods by no means, in fact they have did a whole flip flop as opposed to the old CFS days when to fly modded was taboo, on this end of the court, mods represent modding the game and not the plane. So please, no need to defend mods on my account, but there has to be a peak somewhere to when I get on to fly a campaign sortie, I don't have to jump thru the ole proverbial hoop to just manage to fly.

Rightclick here and see how big the folder is. Its not uncommon for some programs to store a ton of info here needlessly.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator(or user name)\Application Data

S~
a coupla more things to do is, cleaning yer temp files, the download folder also carries a lot of files in it, like the other chaps said, the exe files and zip files are usually in there too.