Couatl64_P3D.exe - Entry Point Not Found **WINDOWS 7 is no longer supported**

[Sandbag01]

Hi Group,

This morning I got an error starting up P3D with this message on the screen.
Is there someone in the group who can assist me solving this problem?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Best Regards,
Harry

[bbugday]

I have the same problem.
I even did a fresh install of gsx while anti virus deactivated.
Nothing I did solved the problem

[virtuali]

Which OS you use ?

[Sandbag01]

I use Windows 7 professional.

[bbugday]

windows 7 home premium

[virtuali]

I'm sorry but, since Windows 7 reached its complete End of life in January 2020, that is 2+ years ago, we warned users we couldn't guaranteed compatibility with it forever, because ANY update released by Microsoft which we MUST use in our compilers to release versions that works with the currently supported OS, might possibly result in the software not working on Windows 7.

See some threads about this in the recent past:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,25935.msg170379.html#msg170379

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,24899.msg164540.html#msg164540

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,24736.msg163771.html#msg163771

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,20913.msg162829.html#msg162829

Note that, I'm not saying we are INTENTIONALLY dropping Windows 7 support, or did anything that, to the best of our knowledge, resulted in that. I'm not even saying there's no solution, a rapid search on the Internet about that error message about a problem with that .DLL, indicates that usually it's caused by a missing/corrupted/wrong version of a Windows System library so, MAYBE, the program might still run on Windows 7, after you fix that problem.

It's just that we don't know, and we can't test it, and since we removed Windows 7 from the minimum supported OS in the product requirements the moment it went completely out of support from Microsoft ( Jan. 2020 ), we are no longer bound to guarantee compatibility with the legacy OS.

It happened a few years ago in the EXACT same way: when Windows XP went completely out of support, some users initially complained, saying Windows XP was the best and most stable Windows version ever, that they would never, ever, switch to Windows 7 over their dead body, and such. Of course, in a few years, everybody switched to Windows 7 and nobody is really missing XP anymore...

So, right now, you have 3 options:

- Try to find a solution for that error, if you search online, you'll find several suggestions how to do that, like repairing system files, etc.

- Update to Windows 10

- Install GSX from a previous installer you still have, WITH THE NETWORK DISCONNECTED, so it won't update. Of course, won't be able to update GSX anymore, exactly like you are not able to update Windows 7 anymore.

[olseric]

Hello,

I understand the logic here...you won't support Windows 7 any longer and that's been the "industry standard", however, the point that I'm upset about is that when we run the updater, it should then say "You have the latest update for the version of Windows that you are running" and shouldn't "break" our computers in the process.

I hope that you can resolve this issue either by sending a GSX Windows 7 patch that rolls back to the last stable configuration, or sending everyone instructions to fix it instead of throwing the masses to Google to "figure it out".

I feel that I shouldn't be able to run a routine update only to find out that it broke the system and then have to "hunt down" the answer in a forum.

Thank you.

[Captain Kevin]

Okay, but how do they know an update is going to break something in Windows 7 if they never tested it in Windows 7.

[olseric]

Excellent question, Kevin.

In SOFTDEV, if the installer isn't tested for a particular OS, then you exclude it from an update.

--EDIT--

Would it be possible to provide us with the last installer that was good for Windows 7 so we can, at least, have a working system?

[achmedfsx]

Same problem here, Win 7 Pro: GetErrorInfo in api-ms-win-downlevel-ole32-l1-1-0.dll not found.
The dll itself exists in C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
The protocol of FSDT Live Update doesn't show any error message:

Start checking for FSX/P3D updates
Checking hosts file
Fixing sim compatibility settings
Fixing sim compatibility settings
Checking if Visual Studio 2008 Runtimes x64 is required (don't worry, if it's already installed or you already have a new version, it won't be reinstalled or downgraded).
DOWNLOADING Visual Studio 2008 Runtimes x64 files
DOWNLOADING file C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\vcredist_x64_2008.zip.001
CREATING Visual Studio 2008 Runtimes x64 .ZIP archive
Removing temp file C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\vcredist_x64_2008.zip.001
EXTRACTING Visual Studio 2008 Runtimes x64 .ZIP archive in C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\
Checking if Visual Studio 2015-2019 Universal Runtimes x64 is required (don't worry, if it's already installed or you already have a new version, it won't be reinstalled or downgraded).
DOWNLOADING Visual Studio 2015-2019 Universal Runtimes x64 files
DOWNLOADING file C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\vc_redist.zip.001
CREATING Visual Studio 2015-2019 Universal Runtimes x64 .ZIP archive
Removing temp file C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\vc_redist.zip.001
EXTRACTING Visual Studio 2015-2019 Universal Runtimes x64 .ZIP archive in C:\Users\Achmed\AppData\Local\Temp\
GSX updated.
GSX Level 2 Expansion updated.
XPOI updated.

Stopping P3D, it comes down then "Windows has detected a problem..."

No chance for a work around ?

[Captain Kevin]

Excellent question, Kevin.

In SOFTDEV, if the installer isn't tested for a particular OS, then you exclude it from an update.

Valid point, but I'm not sure if the installer even takes into consideration Windows operating systems. That said, then you have to field the complaints from people who want new features who now won't be able to use them when they get implemented.

Would it be possible to provide us with the last installer that was good for Windows 7 so we can, at least, have a working system?

I don't know if the installers themselves are even updated, and even then, that would require them to know which version of the Add-on Manager was the last one to work. Given the number of updates that were pushed out recently and everybody having different versions based on if the Cloudflare server near them updated fast or not, I don't know how they would know this.

[virtuali]

In SOFTDEV, if the installer isn't tested for a particular OS, then you exclude it from an update.

Considering we are not sure your problem is not fixable, why denying the ability to install an update you might be able to fix it ?

That's what "untested" and "unsupported" means. It means:

- We can't possibly know if something will work or not, and *because* we don't know, we won't take any decision about intentionally *blocking* out Windows 7 users, who might be able to find a way to fix the problem.

- We can't help you fixing it, other than giving generic suggestions. That's what "unsupported" means.

Would it be possible to provide us with the last installer that was good for Windows 7 so we can, at least, have a working system?

That would imply we know which installer to provide. That's another consequence of being "untested".

And, it would mean we should assume on ourselves extra monthly bandwidth costs (GSX is our largest installer ) JUST to provide the needs of users who decided to use an OS that has been declared officially dead 2 years ago. That's what it means using something that is "unsupported".

If you followed sane backup procedures, and have a fairly recent copy of the installer, installing it without a network connection should get you a version that was current at the time you made the backup. If I decided to say with Windows 7 for some reason, I would started doing backups of everything I bought 2 years ago.

[olseric]

That's easy.  Give us the installer you last provided BEFORE the update of people walking into the building.  We know it worked fine then.

[achmedfsx]

As I do regular full image backups, I did an easy fallback by restoring the fsdt folder from sunday's backup.

Before restoring, I renamend and kept the non-working folder and can easily compare the files.

The problem arose yesterday after updating, the backup was from last sunday, the FSDT files with date 6 feb version work.
If I can help further, please tell me

[virtuali]

That's easy.  Give us the installer you last provided BEFORE the update of people walking into the building.  We know it worked fine then.

It's not a question of "easy", you missed the other part of the explanation:

It would mean we should assume on ourselves extra monthly bandwidth costs (GSX is our largest installer ) JUST to provide the needs of users who decided to use an OS that has been declared officially dead 2 years ago. That's what it means using something that is "unsupported".

Which isn't any different that when Microsoft stopped releasing updates for Windows 7.