If the "Addon Manager suppose to insure latest versions are installed, why it is not reflected in the "Installed Program" section of Windows?
The Addon Manager is only supposed to notify you if there's an update that is mandatory to install otherwise the scenery wouldn't work, but it would still be your responsibility to download and install the affected scenery.
Maybe you are referring to the Live Update, which has been added by GSX, but that keeps updated just GSX code, and Python support code for sceneries. It won't *USUALLY* update actual scenery files, unless there's a file which might be important and not too big to download with the Live Update. This, for a Minor Update, the one you can apply without restarting FSX.
In case of a Major Update, the Addon Manager/Couatl executable themselves, and all the AFCADs of the installed sceneries are updated too, in addition to all files that would have been updated with a Minor Update.
But the information in the Windows Control panel is handled by the installer, at the time you ran it. If your scenery got an update with the Live Update feature, the Windows Control Panel wouldn't know about it.
1. How do I insure I have the latest version installed?
If you applied all the Live Updates, you can be reasonably sure you have most of the important things updated.
The issue is, while the installer will indicate an higher version number, this won't always result in actual changes of the scenery. Most of the times, the version reported in the installer is increased to simply include things that we added with the Live Update, just to have an installer that can be used offline without getting a too old scenery.
And, sometimes the installer gets an update of the version without even a single file in the scenery being changed, for example when updates are made JUST to the installer code, usually to deal with more and more abnormal situations (users with corrupted files, flaky internet connections, etc. ) and since we keep discovering those issues every day, we keep updating the installers to be able to defend against these cases. Another reason why the installer gets updated, is to support newer versions of the sim, since P3D is in a constant update flux, and the installer must be kept in sync with P3D releases.
So, there are countless of reasons why the installer will be upgraded, without a real need to download it, because if your scenery was working normally, and you applied all the Live Updates, it's very likely your scenery was already updated.
In fact, taking KDFW as an example, your existing 2.0.4 installation dated August 2012. If I check all released files for KDFW, NONE of them has a date more recent than 2010, EXCEPT a small .cfg file in one of the objects, and the AFCAD. And guess what, BOTH are being pushed with Live Updates, so you had them anyway.
So, you might be happier now, seeing an higher version in the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs sections, but you uninstalled for nothing, downloaded for nothing, and reinstalled for nothing, since you got exactly the same set of files, and the only two files which were newer than your installer, were obtained through Live Update.
Also, thanks to Couatl scripting abilities, we can also modify sceneries on the fly, so we can push more and more changes without having to redownload the installer. An example of this is exactly at KDFW, were we tweaked all the LOD levels to improve visibility of taxi-lines with wide zoom settings, and this was done just be updating the script for KDFW (which is pushed with Live Update, like any other Python script), without changing any other file in the scenery.
If there was an important scenery upgrade, that would REQUIRE to download the scenery installer, we would use the "Outdated scenery" Addon Manager notification, that is not possible to miss, but we try to use that sparingly, and use the Live Update when possible.
2. Should I do an uninstall and install or install over present version?
Doesn't make any difference, and if it did, you would have been prevented to do it by mistake by the installer. As an example, the KORD 2.0 and the JFK 2.0 installers will just not continue if you don't uninstall the previous versions of the sceneries.
