Notes for Windows users

This document has some information specific to the Windows version of FS-UAE.

Performance

To ensure best and most stable performance, go to Control Panel, and in Power Options, change power plan to High performance (might be found under Show additional plans.

Amiga Forever

FS-UAE Launcher should automatically find Amiga kickstarts from Amiga Forever if you have that installed. If not, please report it. Remember that you may have to start the Amiga Forever Player at least one in order for the rom.key file to be written to disk.

OpenGL drivers

FS-UAE requires working and accelerated OpenGL drivers (it does not use DirectX/Direct3D). OpenGL drivers are usually bundled with the display drivers for your graphics card - so they should already be present on your system.

FS-UAE will start and run without hardware-accelerated drivers, but slowly and with parts of the user interface missing. You really need to have proper OpenGL display drivers for your card installed.

If you suspect problems with your OpenGL graphics driver, you can download and run GLView. This program will list information about your OpenGL driver and its capabilities, and can also run some tests. Reinstalling your display driver is also a good idea to try.

There has been reported a case where FS-UAE only starts briefly, with the window disappearing immediately after appear. The problem turned out to be an issue with the OpenGL drivers. The aforementioned GLView program didn't even start (aborted with a System.AccessViolationException error). A reinstall of current display drivers fixed the problem for both GLView and FS-UAE.

Conflicting software

The following software has been reported by users to cause problems for FS-UAE:

Trillian overlay - It has been reported that using FS-UAE with Trillian chat overlay can cause FS-UAE to crash. You should try to disable the Trillian overlay if that is the case.
Outpost Security Suite Pro 8.0 (4164.639.1856) might cause system to freeze when used with FS-UAE ("It’s just a matter of enabling 'Auto-Learn' mode just before running FS-UAE for the first time, and all will be fine" http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=69080).
Avast anti-virus has been reported to interfere with thumbnail downloads in FS-UAE Launcher, causing the downloader to "hang" on a thumbnail. The visible effect to the user is that thumbnails suddenly stop appearing and a launcher restart is needed to make thumbnails appear again. If you suspect Avast may be interfering, try disabling it before running FS-UAE Launcher and see if the problem goes away.

22 thoughts on “Windows”

WARNING !!!

THIS SOFTWARE KILLED MY WIN7 64BIT SYSTEM !

SEVERE DAMAGE OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM !
SEVERE DAMAGE OF THE BOOT SECTOR !

MY PC IS DEAD !

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FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-26 at 16:55 said:

This is definitively not FS-UAE’s fault. It is not even possible. FS-UAE does not run with administrator privileges, which makes it unable to damage the operating system and/or boot sector. And I can also guarantee that even if it was possible, it does not try to do any dangerous operations which could damage your computer.

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- Ralph on 2022-07-27 at 16:04 said:
  
  I used a package from gamesnostalgia.com which contains fsuae (latest version). I extracted the 7zip archive and started the emulation by doubleklick on .bat. The emulation started, then crashed with heavy graphic artefacts on screen. No response of the whole system, even task manager didnt work. Restart only by power shutoff.
  After that win7 doesnt even start. Pc is booting, then win loading screen is is crashing with the same graphic artifacts, then pc is rebooting again or shutting down.
  This was 100% caused by the crash of the emulator.
  
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  - Ralph on 2022-07-27 at 16:15 said:
    
    Luckily today i could fix the problem. In save mode win was running, although displaying the same graphic artifacts on screen. (Really heavy distortion). I then used win recovery to set the os to a configuration before using fsuae. Then win device manager showed some error on my gpu. I restarted the graphic card (without reloading drivers).
    By now system is running fine again as it did before the crash.
    
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    - FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-27 at 17:07 said:
      
      I’m glad it works for you again. I recommend you run some sort of hardware diagnostics, especially a memory tester, since as I already said, FS-UAE cannot cause a problem that you described. But if you have faulty hardware/drivers, FS-UAE (or any other software) could accidentally trigger corruption.
  - FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-27 at 17:09 said:
    
    Note: I can of course not guarantee the integrity of FS-UAE versions from third party sites, since I do not know if FS-UAE has been altered. It could very well be bundled with malware for all I know.
    
    Reply ↓
    - Ralph on 2022-08-06 at 14:52 said:
      
      I’m 100% sure that my system did not trigger the problem. My system is an absolutely clean OS, because it never ever had any contact to the internet, its just the OS and adobe cs and maya installed. But maybe you are right with 3rd party content.
      
      Anyway i think theres an issue with fsuae, because your newest version 1.3.66 doesnt run on my xp sp3 either. Although e.g. 2.6.1 or 2.8.1 do work properly.
    - FrodeSolheim on 2022-08-06 at 16:05 said:
      
      FS-UAE 3.1.x does not run on Windows XP due to updated requirements by some of the included libraries. I think the minimum requirement is now Windows 7 SP1.
    - Ralph on 2022-08-26 at 14:05 said:
      
      Update:
      I was wrong, i didnt fix the problem. After 5 minutes of regular operation the system crashed again.
      Artefacts all over the screen, the screen is flickering, no keyboard input possible, no mouse input possible.
      
      This win7 system was running fine for the last ten years! Then i used this emulator ONCE, and it crashed like this!
      
      Whats the difference between win7 and win7 SP1 that could end in a severe crash like this???

Hello friends
What minimum pc hardware and software for Best emulation ?

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FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-26 at 16:57 said:

It only needs a moderately fast computer. However, for best result, I recommend using a monitor which can display 50Hz at native resolution (with v-sync). Even better would be a G-Sync or FreeSync-capable monitor and graphics card.

I highly recommend using G-Sync or FreeSync for best results: Smooth scrolling without risking stuttering and/or audio artifacts.

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hi, can i disable opengl (i use linux)?

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FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-26 at 16:57 said:

Hi, FS-UAE can only render to OpenGL.

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Not sure if I’m asking in the right place, but does anyone have a similar problem to FS-UAE after Windows 10 “Creators Update”? It has become completely unusable in full-screen. There is terrible jittering and tearing and about 6fps. Still works like a charm in ‘windowed mode’. I have the latest Nvidia and Intel graphics card drivers which is where I suspect the problem lies, but is there any clever trick or setting I can try to regain my beautiful, full-screen amiga emulator back :,(

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FrodeSolheim on 2022-07-26 at 16:58 said:

Hi, I found an old comment I didn’t respond do. Hopefully, the problem you experienced have sorted itself out by now via newer software/drivers.

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Can I force FS-UAE v2.8.3 to use Direct3D in stead of OpenGL?

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FrodeSolheim on 2017-01-16 at 17:32 said:

No, FS-UAE only contains code for rendering to OpenGL. In the future, I may add code to use SDL2’s rendering layer, which can use Direct3D as a backend.

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- dax on 2017-01-17 at 11:26 said:
  
  I have no problems with speed on OpenGL, others do. That is why asked.
  I appreciate the answer 🙂 and Your work on it!
  
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Hello, Thank you for developing this software. Just wanted to know how I can change where FS-UAE is located on my system. It automatically saves to C: drive even thought I don’t have things set up that way and I would like to change it to the D: drive but do not know how to. Any help would be kindly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Chris

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FrodeSolheim on 2016-12-04 at 00:05 said:

Hi, the easiest way is to use the portable version. You can put that anywhere!

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Where do I find the FS-UAE Launcher program on Windows 8.1 64-Bit? There’s no icon on the desktop.

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FrodeSolheim on 2015-05-14 at 13:27 said:

Hi, if you have run the FS-UAE setup program, the launcher is found on your Windows start menu. The installer does not put an icon on the desktop. If you are using the portable version, you need to browse to where you extracted FS-UAE and run it from there.

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FS-UAE Amiga Emulator

Documentation

Notes for Windows users

Performance

Amiga Forever

OpenGL drivers

Conflicting software