With so many “experts”, how can you tell who knows and who doesn’t? Hint – not this guy ^^^.
Another poster said that Alt-F4 triggers a Windows clean shut-down of an application. He is right – it’s just like pressing the X icon on the main window. A Window’s app gets a CanClose message, and can abort the close by returning False. This is commonly used in programs to avoid losing data, typically asking the user if they want to exit without saving if data has been changed. If no data has been changed, then they just allow the application to close without asking.
Want proof? Do the Notepad test by opening Notepad, typing in a few characters so that the data has changed, DO NOT SAVE THE FILE, then hit Alt-F4. What happens? Now try the same thing but pressing the X icon instead. What happens?
So it is Asobo’s choice to not currently trap the Windows CanClose message and allow the sim to close with no warning. They do ask if you’re sure you want to leave when using the Quit To Desktop option, but not with Alt-F4 or by pressing the X icon (my method).
It wouldn’t bother me if they trapped the exit – not just the Alt-F4 keystroked – and asked for confirmation. I run the sim in windowed mode, and I have closed it by accident.
Then I threw an adolescent tantrum, punched a hole in the wall, blamed Asobo for my last divorce, and smashed my flight computer with a sledge hammer. Quite the appropriate reaction to this life or death issue.