What is a good desktop Simulaor?

History:

Years ago, I had some nice experiences with FS5, sing a gameport, but I
sought more pilot proficency realism.

So I bought Jeppesen's Flight Pro 6.0, upgraded to 6.2, to get IFR
practice. I got it to work about half the time using a Wingman Joystick
on USB. It required the retail CD to be in the CD drive, and that worked.

Then I changed to an XP laptop, no game port, just USB.

Now, when I try to use the Jepp Flitpro, the system balks, claiming
that the retail CD is not in the CD drive despite that it really is in
there. XP (Lenovo Thinkpad with XP) seems to not satify the Jepp
flitepro identification scheme for CD presence indicator (whatever that
might be). One can run Flitepro anyway, but there is no sound, and it
quits within about 2 minutes of flight.

How can I get the CD to be recognized?

Alternatively, which FS today is worthwhile?

Angelo Campanella