Thanks both, sorry for my my delay too ...
I think I've worked out a solution in the past two weeks, during which I've also reinstalled FSX on a Win 7 partition. So I now have the original MS version of FSX-Acceleration going on XP and Win7 and the Steam version running on Win 10. Only one version of FSX is used at the one time of course, and that usually for several weeks or months at a time.
Changing the scenery database itself in Plan-G is not the main issue, for the reasons stated by Tim.
When Plan-G starts, it apparently uses an XML config file named "user.config" in its AppData folder for many settings, including SimConnect or other comms settings, the location of the "Plan-G Files" folder in the user's "Documents" and the location of both FSX and scenery.cfg on the FSX computer, some of which are version- and OS-specific.
I realise these can all be re-entered each time by the user but it would be nice to be able to do it via some sort of profile. My solution below works but is a bit cludgy and it needs polishing by an expert.
On the laptop (Plan-G machine) I have set up three folders in the "Documents" folder, in addition to the default file "Plan-G Files" :
/Steam_Plan-G Files
/XP_Plan-G Files
/Win7_Plan-G files
In the Users //AppData//TA_Software//3.2.1.151 folder I have saved three copies of each successful version of "user.config" that worked for each of the three FSX versions, renaming them in each case ..
Plan-G-Steam-user.config
Plan-G-XP-user.config
Plan-G-Win7-user.config
In each case I've edited the XML value for "FlightPlanFolder" (about 1/3 down) to the names given to the "Plan-G Files" folders above. Also "FSX_Exe_Location" and and "FSX_SceneryCfg_Location" get their new values, and the files are saved. This only needs to be done once, e.g. :
...
<setting name="FSX_Exe_Location" serializeAs="String">
<value>\\I7DTOP\Win7\FSX7</value>
</setting>
<setting name="FSX_SceneryCfg_Location" serializeAs="String">
<value>\\i7DTop\Win7\Users\ozflyboy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX</value>
</setting>
<setting name="Sim" serializeAs="String">
<value>FSX</value>
</setting>
<setting name="FlightPlanFolder" serializeAs="String">
<value>C:\Users\ozfb\Documents\Win7_Plan-G Files\Data</value>
</setting>
...
Now, when running Plan-G, first go to the AppData/////3.2.1.151 folder, select one of either "Plan-G-Steam-user.config", "Plan-G-XP-user.config" or "Plan-G-Win7-user.config" and save it as "user.config". Everything should start up in the correct place.
The whole process takes about two minutes whenever I change FSX versions., not too onerous. The only downside so far seems to be that some (most?) of the stored values and settings etc are constant, i.e. they don't reflect the last-session settings as intended.
What is needed now is for someone more up to date than me to put all this into a script or even an old batch file if they still exist?
I think I've worked out a solution in the past two weeks, during which I've also reinstalled FSX on a Win 7 partition. So I now have the original MS version of FSX-Acceleration going on XP and Win7 and the Steam version running on Win 10. Only one version of FSX is used at the one time of course, and that usually for several weeks or months at a time.
Changing the scenery database itself in Plan-G is not the main issue, for the reasons stated by Tim.
When Plan-G starts, it apparently uses an XML config file named "user.config" in its AppData folder for many settings, including SimConnect or other comms settings, the location of the "Plan-G Files" folder in the user's "Documents" and the location of both FSX and scenery.cfg on the FSX computer, some of which are version- and OS-specific.
I realise these can all be re-entered each time by the user but it would be nice to be able to do it via some sort of profile. My solution below works but is a bit cludgy and it needs polishing by an expert.
On the laptop (Plan-G machine) I have set up three folders in the "Documents" folder, in addition to the default file "Plan-G Files" :
/Steam_Plan-G Files
/XP_Plan-G Files
/Win7_Plan-G files
In the Users //AppData//TA_Software//3.2.1.151 folder I have saved three copies of each successful version of "user.config" that worked for each of the three FSX versions, renaming them in each case ..
Plan-G-Steam-user.config
Plan-G-XP-user.config
Plan-G-Win7-user.config
In each case I've edited the XML value for "FlightPlanFolder" (about 1/3 down) to the names given to the "Plan-G Files" folders above. Also "FSX_Exe_Location" and and "FSX_SceneryCfg_Location" get their new values, and the files are saved. This only needs to be done once, e.g. :
...
<setting name="FSX_Exe_Location" serializeAs="String">
<value>\\I7DTOP\Win7\FSX7</value>
</setting>
<setting name="FSX_SceneryCfg_Location" serializeAs="String">
<value>\\i7DTop\Win7\Users\ozflyboy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX</value>
</setting>
<setting name="Sim" serializeAs="String">
<value>FSX</value>
</setting>
<setting name="FlightPlanFolder" serializeAs="String">
<value>C:\Users\ozfb\Documents\Win7_Plan-G Files\Data</value>
</setting>
...
Now, when running Plan-G, first go to the AppData/////3.2.1.151 folder, select one of either "Plan-G-Steam-user.config", "Plan-G-XP-user.config" or "Plan-G-Win7-user.config" and save it as "user.config". Everything should start up in the correct place.
The whole process takes about two minutes whenever I change FSX versions., not too onerous. The only downside so far seems to be that some (most?) of the stored values and settings etc are constant, i.e. they don't reflect the last-session settings as intended.
What is needed now is for someone more up to date than me to put all this into a script or even an old batch file if they still exist?