File carry-overs causing sim to CTD **SOLVED**

[SSI01]

On my computer, I have five variations of FS9 installed.  One is on E drive, which is the drive containing the OS.  This is a stand-alone installation of FS9 that is not touched and is used for reference purposes when needed.

The other four installations of FS9 are on F drive.  Each of the four is dedicated to a specific period of flight.  FSGW3 covers 1903 - 1949; FSSW50 covers 1950-1959; FSSW60 covers 1960-1969; and FS9 covers 1970 to date.

I recently downloaded, purchased and installed the FSDT F-4 Phantom and F-104 per instructions.  I installed them in the FS9 1970 to date sim on F drive, again following instructions.  Since doing that, I have been receiving a series of messages when I start any of the sims I have mentioned.  The messages all say the same thing.  First, they ask if I have yet activated the F-104 on this PC, and then would I like to do so?  Of course, I have activated the F-104 in the "FS9 for 1970 to date" sim.  The problem is the installer seems to have installed the F-104 in ALL of the sims, including the pristine, stand-alone FS9 installation on E drive as well.

After this happens, I get another series of messages, all saying the same thing and relating to the scenery packages that FSDT also offers:
"The product Cloud9 XXXXXX (Amsterdam/Aviano/Fly the Lakes/Pisa/etc) is correctly installed but not yet active on this PC.  Do you want to activate it now?  Yes/No."  I have not purchased any of these sceneries, nor installed them on any of the sims - yet this message continues to pop up on all the sims during intro.  After I finish answering "no" to each of the requests, another statement pops up - "Backup registration key saved to :  Cloud9_XXXXXX.reg in your FS folder.  Use it for future reinstallations on this PC."

This problem appears to have made it impossible to start any of the sims on my machine.  How does one go about deactivating this feature on the startup of FS9?

[virtuali]

The problem is the installer seems to have installed the F-104 in ALL of the sims, including the pristine, stand-alone FS9 installation on E drive as well.

That's not a "problem" at all, and the installer hasn't installed into any other sim than the one you chose at installation time. This, with "installation", meaning copying all the files needed for the airplane. They have been installed only in ONE sim, unless of course you manually copy them from one sim to another, but the installer won't install in more than one sim.

About your ACTIVATION, instead, that's not a "file" that is anywhere on your system. It's stored in the Windows REGISTRY, under your user account.

This obviously make sense because, it allows you to uninstall/reinstall both the product AND the sim as many times as you want, without worrying about your activation.

This also means that, once you activated the Serial for a product, the question shouldn't appear anymore, unless you upgrade your hardware or reinstall Windows OR switch to another user account. If you run each sim in different users accounts, you will have to confirm your activations for each of them, but this will happen only once.

After this happens, I get another series of messages, all saying the same thing and relating to the scenery packages that FSDT also offers:
"The product Cloud9 XXXXXX (Amsterdam/Aviano/Fly the Lakes/Pisa/etc) is correctly installed but not yet active on this PC.  Do you want to activate it now?  Yes/No."  I have not purchased any of these sceneries, nor installed them on any of the sims - yet this message continues to pop up on all the sims during intro.

This is an ENTIRELY different issue and, instead, it shows you HAVE some kind of Serial key in the registry for those products. Now the question would be, why you have a Serial key for those products, when you never bought them ? If you bought the products, your Serial will work and you surely would want to activate it, but if you haven't, you have an invalid/fake serial for those products, and (I'm sorry to say this, but it's the only possible explanation), is that you tried to use an old crack for Cloud9 products that obviously doesn't work anymore now, but it left fake serials in your registry.

None of our installers or products obviously put wrong/fake serials in the registry and, even if you try to manually type a serial and make a mistake while typiing it, it won't be added to the registry by our software, unless it PASSES the activation. That's why the only possible explanation is that an external program has filled the registry with invalid data.

The only way to clean your registry, so you won't have activation requests for product you don't own, is to use the REGEDIT utility that comes with Windows, go to the following folder:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cloud9

and remove all the folders named as products you don't own. If you run with multiple user accounts, you must repeat this procedure by logging with each one of them.

[SSI01]

Thanks for the explanation, and I will take the action recommended and report results. 

Sorry about taking so long, the computer had problems that the shop diagnosed correctly as overheating of the CPU and the video card.  This caused a "green screen of death" that locked up everything.  Took better than 2 weeks to get it back after an application of silver paste to the heat sinks in both areas.  I now have it in hand and will take care of this. 

[SSI01]

Success!!  Thank you for the advice.

[dutchman88]

I just tried the Flecce Tricolori recently and found the same problem. 

From my perspective it is a previous install of the trial Phantom that left the carry-overs installed.  I got the same annoying popups of files installed but not activated.  Once I read your previous solution everything cleared up and the annoying popups went away.  However, I am also looking at several FSDT scenery add on.  If I purchase and install those (scenery add on), will their add on manager also handle the Fleece Tricolori or do I need to install the stand alone add on manager after installation of the Fleece Tricolori?
 

[virtuali]

I just tried the Flecce Tricolori recently and found the same problem. 

From my perspective it is a previous install of the trial Phantom that left the carry-overs installed.  I got the same annoying popups of files installed but not activated.  Once I read your previous solution everything cleared up and the annoying popups went away.

It's NOT the result a "normal" previous install of any other Cloud9 product. If you really have the *same* problem reported here, this is the ONLY possible explanation:

it shows you HAVE some kind of Serial key in the registry for those products. Now the question would be, why you have a Serial key for those products, when you never bought them ? If you bought the products, your Serial will work and you surely would want to activate it, but if you haven't, you have an invalid/fake serial for those products, and (I'm sorry to say this, but it's the only possible explanation), is that you tried to use an old crack for Cloud9 products that obviously doesn't work anymore now, but it left fake serials in your registry.

There's no other way around: either your Serial IS a valid one, or it's not.

- If it's valid, as soon as you confirm the activation request, it will pass it, and the message WILL go away

- If it's not valid, it will never pass the activation, so the activation request will repeat over and over at each FS9 startup, until you manually clean your registry from the fake/bogus Serial Number.

[dutchman88]

To clarify;
I installed the phantom as a trial copy a few years back. Never purchased it, at that time, an internet connection was required for purchase and an internet connection was unavailable to me on that particular PC.  I uninstalled the phantom. 

This last go around a few days ago, I installed the Frecce Tricolori as well as the KLAX scenery trials. 

[virtuali]

I installed the phantom as a trial copy a few years back. Never purchased it, at that time, an internet connection was required for purchase and an internet connection was unavailable to me on that particular PC.  I uninstalled the phantom. 

Just installing the Trial will NOT leave any trace of it in the registry, and surely not in the Serial Number registry entry key.

These are the only possible ways a Serial Number for the Phantom might have ended up in your registry:

1) By purchasing it and activating it. In this case, since the Serial is valid, it will pass the activation request even today OR, in the worse case, it will give you a clear message about having used too many activations. If the activation pass, you won't be asked again for that Serial, until the next hardware change.

OR

2) By trying to use an old crack for Cloud9 products, that tried to insert bogus serial numbers in the registry. In this case, since the fake serial number will never pass the activation, so you'll get a request to reactivate it over and over, at each FS9 start. This is entirely unrelated to the Phantom or the fact you installed the Trial, that bogus Cloud9 crack tried to insert a fake serial number in *every* registry key related to Cloud9, regardless if you installed it or not.

OR

3) By manually editing the registry and inserting a wrong serial there.

There are not other possible ways of getting a Serial Number (real or fake) in the registry key for any Cloud9 product.