Addon manager problem

[chucky]

I've been having problems with addon manager.  It's a general problem, but I'll put it here since I've been mostly using Kennedy recently.  In brief, every time I install a new scenery into FSX, addon manager disappears.  This has been going on for a while, and I've been meaning to post about it here, but now I can't seem to reinstall addon manager at all.  I have downloaded the standalone installer, run it without errors, but addon manager does not appear in the FSX menu, and all the buildings at JFK are missing.  I'm running Vista Business 64bit, and FSX/SP2.

[virtuali]

Already explained here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=2358.msg19604#msg19604

Try to follow that procedure to the letter, and verify FSX is asking permission to run both modules.

Also, check your antivirus is not interfering (blocking the program), as explained here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=2261.msg18813#msg18813

[chucky]

I forgot to mention that I did follow the instructions in your first link the last time this happened to me.  One thing I had not done was the antivirus exclusion thing.  I just remembered that I hadn't reinstalled KORD after the last trouble, so I just did and now addon manager (and the airport buildings) shows up as it should.  I have added bglmanx.dll and the fsdreamteam folder to my antivirus ignore list.  Since it's working for the moment, I'm inclined to leave it as it is for the moment, unless you really think I should go through the uninstall/reinstall cycle again with antivirus off.

Thanks for for the help.

[virtuali]

Since it's working for the moment, I'm inclined to leave it as it is for the moment, unless you really think I should go through the uninstall/reinstall cycle again with antivirus off.

Since it works now, don't do anything, and having them in the antivirus exclusion list will keep them working because, apparenly, in your case it was just the antivirus.

However, in case of an update of the program, you will have to turn off the antivirus when installing because the installer will first uncompress all files in a temporary folder, and then it will copy them to the destination folder.

Since only the destination folder is under the exclusion lists, but not the temporary folder, which has a different (random) name every time the installer starts, unless you exclude from scanning the *whole* %TMP% folder, which is VERY unsecure and not really suggested, the only way to prevent the antivirus blocking the file at install time, is to turn it off during the process.

[chucky]

Well, I guess it isn't just the antivirus.  Addon manager disappeared again, so I uninstalled, turned off my antivirus (just the vanilla Windows Defender that comes with Vista), and reinstalled, following the instructions you provided.  Then this morning I installed the patch for FlyTampa's Boston, and addon manager is gone again.  Just reinstalling addon manager didn't bring it back.

I'm posting this here just in case you have any ideas, but my current FSX installation is getting pretty old - I wonder if it isn't time to go with a fresh install.  I'll probably wait a month or two to do that, and combine it with an upgrade to Windows 7 (maybe hardware, too).

[virtuali]

Then this morning I installed the patch for FlyTampa's Boston, and addon manager is gone again.  Just reinstalling addon manager didn't bring it back.

This is very strange, as far as I know, FlyTampa sceneries don't use any modules, which is something that might have triggered a problem with the FSX modules config.

It's probably something related in some way to Windows security. You can try removing again the bglmanx.dll entries from FSX.CFG so, this will force Windows to redo the trust question on the first FSX launch.
 

[chucky]

No, it certainly isn't specific to FlyTampa - it happens any time I install (or in this case, modify) a scenery to FSX.  I've tried removing the relevant lines from the fsx.cfg file - it asks me to trust them, but addon manager never shows up in the sim.  It seems the only thing I can do is completely remove the sceneries and reinstall them every time I install something else.

[virtuali]

it happens any time I install (or in this case, modify) a scenery to FSX.

Again, this shouldn't simply happen. If there's a problem with scenery.cfg, the scenery might not display, but the Addon Manager should't just disappear!

I've tried removing the relevant lines from the fsx.cfg file - it asks me to trust them, but addon manager never shows up in the sim.  It seems the only thing I can do is completely remove the sceneries and reinstall them every time I install something else.

That wouldn't accomplish anything, except that reinstalling any of our sceneries, will get the current  version of the Addon Manager, but you can also get it by installing the Stand-Alone Addon Manager, that doesn't requires to reinstall the scenery.

However, if the Addon Manager doesn't appear on the *first* launch after it has been trusted, it's not really a problem. It will appear on the 2nd launch, and if it doesn't then the problem is elsewhere, and it's an entirely different thing, which can't be possibly related to the sceneries installed and the scenery.cfg.

You simply had the wrong impression of this, because as soony you have seen the Addon Manager disappearing, you might immediately uninstalled/reinstalled the scenery, which wasn't needed, but then you tried and it worked, not because you reinstalled the scenery, but simply because you launched FSX another time.

[chucky]

In general the first thing I try when I don't see the Addon Manager is to restart FSX.  I've launched FSX several times since my latest reinstall - Addon Manager isn't launching.

In any case, I feel very stupid for not mentioning this before - I get an error message when I start up FSX.  It says 'cannot set allocations'.  I only get this message when the Addon Manager is installed.  I'm not sure why it did not occur to me earlier that the two things might be related.

[virtuali]

In any case, I feel very stupid for not mentioning this before - I get an error message when I start up FSX.  It says 'cannot set allocations'.  I only get this message when the Addon Manager is installed.  I'm not sure why it did not occur to me earlier that the two things might be related.

Yes, of course they are! This would also explain why there are issues when the scenery.cfg is modified. This error means the program doesn't have permission to write in the registry. Are you trying to run FSX on a user with a limited account ? This usually doesn't work, especially with most of the addons. Try editing your user account to have admin permissions.

If your normal user account already has admin permission, then it means those permission do not work correctly so, you might have to run FSX as administrator OR, you can try creating a new user account with admin permissions, and launch FSX from there because, maybe, your user account has been corrupted.

[chucky]

That does it.  My primary account has administrator privileges, I leave UAC turned off in an attempt to avoid these kinds of problems, and running FSX as administrator doesn't help, but creating a new user account works.  I will have to see if it is possible to fix my primary account, since migrating everything over to a new account will be a bit annoying.  In any case, thanks for the help.

[chucky]

Okay, changing the account type from administrator to standard(?!?) and then running FSX as administrator works.  So.....well, I don't know.  Maybe it's just time to upgrade my machine.  Anyway, I appreciate your help, and I'm sorry I neglected to give you all the relevant information right off the bat.

[virtuali]

Okay, changing the account type from administrator to standard(?!?) and then running FSX as administrator works.

This seems like your account permission have gone bad and, resetting it to standard might have fixed them somehow. You might also try setting it your account back to admin permissions, maybe it will work now.

[chucky]

It seems to work.  I think I'm going to go do some flying now.