I’ve had some trouble installing 3-D studio Max 2009, and because of the installation problem a tad too format my hard drive and start reinstalling 3-D studio Max.

Now I have installed 3-D studio Max 2009, and I have noticed some differences that I never seen before, material editor has some preset textures already loaded.  And the rendering option is set to, Mental ray Renderer.

I’m just wondering if this is the proper default that is now within 3-D studio Max or if I need to begin all over again.

And maybe you can help me with understanding exactly what this is in easy understandable language.  When installing I notice this with an 3-D studio Max has one of the options, Vault, I am no idea exactly if I need this or not.  So this time I did not take the option to have it installed.

So needless to say before the possibility of not being able to get back and say thank you I will say it now.  Do appreciate any help that will be provided.  Once again thank you.

Max 1.0 to 2012, XP Pro 32 bit SP3, and or Win 7 64 bit.
NVDIA Quadro 5000. Quad 2 CPU GHz.  2.40 GHz, 3.25GB RAM.

The default settings are indeed different in 2009 Design - they are geared towards Design Viz rather than standard modeling. It is not a bug or a fault with the installation, it’s by design (pun intended).

If you want it work like previous versions of Max, go to Customise > Custom UI and Defaults Switcher > Max (as opposed to the MR and designviz options). Note that if you have already made any UI changes you will lose them.

Read the middle panel of the Switcher dialog - it describes most of the differences between the various configurations.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.