Umberto,The Flight1 wrapper is a real pain but I accept it due to the possibility to easy get a refund for products one doesn't like.The FSDT system is similar but without the need to get the money back because there's the demo version.As a few others mentioned already, I'm really impressed how calm and professional you are handling this thread and how well you explained the protection and configuration system.In fact you made me re-think my antipathy against the virtuali system and I'm seriously considering to buy products from FSDT and QW.Thank you for your endurance and dedication :)Best regardsBernt

ok - just HAD to put my two cents in here - 1) Agree totally - Umberto - Lei è un atto di classe - especially since English is not your native language - you have replied calmly. Bravo!2) To the Avsim Mods - you just GOTTA know they are watching this with baited breath - they've allowed a 7 page thread to continue and it has NOT degenerated into a Virtuali bash or name calling fest. Some good questions were asked and answered. It appears progress has been made.As for DRM - it is fast becoming a way of life - get used to it. It is the users option to boycott any product for any reason - it that's yours - so be it.Vic

Umberto,The Flight1 wrapper is a real pain but I accept it due to the possibility to easy get a refund for products one doesn't like.I'm really impressed how calm and professional you are handling this thread and how well you explained the protection and configuration system.In fact you made me re-think my antipathy against the virtuali system and I'm seriously considering to buy products from FSDT and QW.Thank you for your endurence and dedication :)Best regards, Bernt

Looks like we're on a similar wavelength, Bernt...

Thank you for noticing.Perhaps you are right, and I apologize for it but, it's basically two days straight I'm replying to all sort of posts, and I'm trying to be precise and polite, not using my native language, and in the meantime, I also updated a scenery (there's a new patch for the Hawaii on our site, released today), and that might been stressful.I'll If I recall your last post on our forum, you were having issues loading the Addon Manager. Do you still have it installed now ? Does it work now ? Have you removed it because it didn't ? Perhaps you might help testing some changes I would like to try, but I need someone that had/have problems.

Hi UmbertoI do have it installed - version 2.8.0.2 and, only due to having the QW757 installed (now there's another great product). Not because I've installed my FSDT software.The testing you suggest could actually be a very good idea on my setup. The reason being... I have way over the average number of payware addons. I've recently done something similar with Ryan at PMDG using Team Viewer.Thing is though, I'm just finishing my THIRD reinstall of Windows7 and FSX with all addons, in as many weeks :( :( (now there lies a story!) I need to get all that FIRMLY backed up before risking anything.

... also Umberto, talking of apologies. Regarding that last post over at 'your place, Although I did feel a little aggrieved at the time, I did over react to a comment you made. Sorry about that.

I will parse this: I had a perfectly working a/c. I installed a scenery. Both use Viturali. Scenery install also installed a new *.gau file for my otherwise perfect a/c. Loaded up scenery. Doesn't work. Shut down FSX and remove scenery. Run FSX again. Load my a/c. FSX CTD's. Continues to CTD no matter which way I attempt to load it. Sent email to scenery producer asking for help. Got an immediate refund, but no help (I did not ask for a refund, it just appeared the next day). Still have not received help on that scenery or even a communication from the producer. With each selection of the a/c, FSX continues to CTD.

You know, after launching KSFO as my first product, I expected to run into some trouble with a few users to get it working, but I never expected this. Let me first tell you, and everyone else here on AVSIM that your statement, Tom, is a complete lie. And on top of it.. to post a rant on AVSIM forum telling users that you received "No Support" and just a refund, you have no idea how damaging you've been to FlightBeam especially as a new FS developer.Each and every single time you sent a support request to me, I promptly replied with instructions to fix with a request to follow up with me. Since you made this so public and decided to tell everyone that you received "no support"... I will post our support correspondence right here so everyone can see for themselves. ---TOM:I purchased KSFO for FSX this last Saturday. My order number is xxxxxxxxxx. I installed it and have not been able to get it to show the terminals. It shows the gateways, floating off the ground, but no terminals. None. It shows floating lamp posts as well. I have tried various approaches to fix this, including setting all my sliders to the right, going with your recommended settings, etc. I run all of the Blueprint airports without issue as well a number of Aerosoft airports like mega DE Gaulle, mega London, mega Frankfurt, and others without issues.Can someone advise me on how to rectify this?------My support response, with 2 HOURS:Hello Tom, Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I've had one other customer with this problem and it was solved by installing the latest addon-manager which was updated saturday-sunday. http://www.virtualis...donmanagerX.exeJust to be safe, I would re-install KSFO as well by re-downloading the same link, I posted an update over the weekend.http://www.flightbea...o_fsx_setup.exePlease let me know if this solved your problem, or if you still have trouble.-------A day later I get this response from you:-----I attempted to reply to your email earlier to me regarding the "fix" link you sent me. The mail bounced back. If you are going to respond to people and encourage them to get back with you, that is pretty aggravating when the very email you do that with is an address that doesn't work. Here is what I attempted to send you:That is because you replied to an auto reply ticket system, there is a reason I use the ticket system, so I can easily track all requests and respond promptly rather than replying to hundreds of email threads. I installed the new file you sent me the link to. Not only did it not fix the problem with no terminals, floating jet ways and light poles; in fact, it blew up my FSX. I had flown a flight just before installing your addonmanager and FSX was perfect in every way. Install the manger and now I cannot get FSX to go beyond about 1 minute into the splash screen and then FSX dies. Just disappears. I have removed the manager, I have cleaned the registery, I removed the QW757.gua entry in the fsx.cfg, restarted the computer and attempted to start up FSX five or six times. Same issue; FSX just dies and disappears - nothing in the task manager or service that are recognizable. Needless to say, what started out as a simple scenery install has now totally screwed up my system. If I have to wipe out FSX and start over again with all my add-on's, I am going to be a very unhappy person. And why would your fix have anything to do with the QW757, which has worked for me flawlessly??Do you have any advice short of reloading FSX to fix this?Tom AllensworthAVSIM Online ---------------------My support response, immediately: Hi Tom, Again I'm sorry to hear what has happened. I'm emailing you directly now rather than through the ticket system so you don't have to go through it. The ticket system simply allows me to track issues better rather than numerous email threads. Lets start with giving you a refund and fixing your FSX. Lets clear some things up first. I can assure you that if this was a problem with my scenery I'd have people with pitchforks chasing me. You are the only one that has had this problem. Addon Manager is created by FSDreamTeam, not flightbeam. Every single aspect of that program is managed by them, and they have thousands and thousands of users. Additionally, I don't even own or have anything to do with QW757. Step one, rename your FSX.CFG to FSX.old, this will allow FSX to rebuild the CFG file. Please do this as a first step and see if FSX starts. Please follow up to this and let me know if this works, then we'll go from there. Mir --------------I never got a response from you. Even though I clearly said "PLEASE FOLLOW UP TO THIS". To sit here and tell everyone that you got no help is downright ridiculous. It may be easy to bash other developers who have a multitude of products to support them, I just have ONE introductory scene which has been getting slaughtered by all this BS. Thanks very much. Let me also note that I gave you a refund out of pure courtesy. It doesn't de-activate the product, or end the support I was giving. I was trying to help so you could get it working and giving you a refund at the same time for your initial troubles. Un-fricking-believable

Interesting how both sides of the story have now come to light! Too bad the damage has already been done and so much time has been used on this thread. I wonder if this had been a regular Joe posting, it would have been allowed to carry on, without a lock and a message to visit the developer's forum/website?

Interesting, yes. Damaging to Flightbeam, FSDT and yes...Like I stated in a post earlier in this thread, Tom should lock this thread and work the issue's out with both Flightbeam and FSDreamTeam.To be honest; I think Tom owns these developers a public apology.On a personal note; I have all FSDT scenery's, I have the (AMAZINGLY) KSFO from FlightBeam and I have the QW757 and they all work flawlessly together. Never had any problem with any one of them. Every cent paid on these addons has been well worth it.(all under the fantastic weather of ASE, courtesy of Jim :( )

Interesting how both sides of the story have now come to light! Too bad the damage has already been done and so much time has been used on this thread. I wonder if this had been a regular Joe posting, it would have been allowed to carry on, without a lock and a message to visit the developer's forum/website?

Indeed.I hope that no one is swayed from Flightbeam's or FSDT's product due to an event like this. I bought their KSFO the day it was released and while there were a few little things with it, none that were more than cosmetic, it has caused no problems on my rig. When I posted the few cosmetic issue in the Flightbeam forum, Mir of Flightbeam, was quick to repsond and issue a hotfix. He has also been more than timely in his replies to customer requests or problems on his forum. I plan to but their next airport (KPHX) as well once they complete it. I though KSFO was well done, especially considering it was a first product from a start up developer, and would recommend it to anyone.

Wow... is all I can say.I just wonder what Tom'll say, if anything.

Now I that I finally saw the email exchange between Tom and Amir of Flightbeam, I'm starting to understand what's happened.One of the main complaints that has been raised is that the KSFO installer (now that Amir posted, we can probably use all proper names...) shouldn't have automatically updated the QW757 gauge.Something didn't add up, because I usually don't do Gauges updates in the scenery installers (I wrote the KSFO installer too, because it's just easier to do it, since it uses our sales system) BUT, maybe I made a mistake, and left the option to update the Gauge in that installer.So I've checked the installer source code, and no, it doesn't do any Gauge update, as it should. The Gauge download is only made by the Stand-Alone Addon Manager, which is not really dedicated to a specific product, but it's more like a "fix them all" tool so, it downloads more things, if it finds they are outdated.But I haven't said anything, because there was still a margin for error: since KSFO had an updated a couple of days after it was released so, it's still possible I had the automatic Gauge update enabled in the 1.0 version, which was out for a few days only, and fixed it in the 1.0.1 update. I really not sure now.Not that the automatic Gauge update would do any harm by itself, but since it was questioned the general methodology of having a scenery automatically downloading an update for another product, I can say it's not like that: I've double checked even all the FSDT installers, and they don't download anything not related to them either. If KSFO 1.0 did that (not sure about that), it wasn't supposed to do it, and the current version surely doesn't do it.The only Addon Manager installer that downloads updates for all the Gauges he knows (which in FSX is only the QW757 right now) if it finds the relevant airplane installed, it's the Stand-Alone version, which sometimes can be used to quickly get some updates, without downloading tons of stuff.So, after reading Tom's reply, it seemed that he had the 757 Gauge updated only after installing the Stand-Alone Addon Manager, which was one of the fixes suggested by Amir.Following Tom's description on those email, it appear that FSX quit to desktop without any error message just after the splash screen. This happens only in one situation: the Addon Manager .dll doesn't match with its other support files it comes with. Since they are all downloaded together, it's normally not possible, unless under very rare circumstances (like internet connection dropping exactly in the middle) to get mixed-up version.UNLESS, "something" is blocking the .dll download, and let it pass the other files, ending up in a mixed-up situation. This can be either an antivirus or a firewall, or any other thing that is able to block a download. The immediate fix to restore FSX proper operations and stop having quit to desktop at launch, would have been Uninstalling the scenery using the standard Uninstaller found the Windows Control Panel under the Add/Remove programs, and replying YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" This is the simplest and easiest cleaning up procedure to remove the Addon Manager in case anything goes wrong, and it's guaranteed to work 100%, meaning FSX will ALWAYS go back to a state as before it was installed. Of course, all its managed addons will not work anymore, but at least no harm will be done to FSX itself, and the next step would be contacting us, to understand WHY the Addon Manager didn't worked in the first place.If I was able to get in touch with Tom earlier, I would be able to verify this was indeed the problem very easily, by checking all files, and see if it was really a problem of something that blocked the program to be downloaded. Tom, I've tried to send you a PM here, but the forum said your account is not configured to receive private messages, if you need any help, it should be fairly easy to reach me.I'd like to add that probably Amir should have handled this in a smarter way and direct Tom to me immediately, but I think he should be allowed some slack: KSFO is his first product, and for a first release is OUTSTANDING, I'd say better than some of our own earlier releases, which means we can probably expect great things from Flightbeam in the future. And, he's managing everything on his own, from developing the scenery to handling the site and the forum, while we at FSDT are different people, and I'm basically dedicated to customer support and I've being doing this for years so, I can understand Amir probably needs to gain some experience with support issues, but that doesn't take anything away from the quality of his work, which is very high. I wouldn't conceded the use of our sales system if the product wasn't top rate anyway...

It's not necessarily so bad guys.Whatever the reasons - right or wrong... there may indeed have been some bad stuff said.Being a firm believer in the saying: 'all advertising is good advertising', the results could easily even out. After all, there's been a LOT of very good stuff said about the product.However, what HAS come out of it, regardless of what anyone likes, dislikes, says or otherwise, is just HOW it's been dealt with here by Umberto... My hat is off to you sir. I may not agree with all you've said Umberto, but for the manor in which it was said I applaud you :( Having recently had issues with a couple of developers regarding attitue to customers, this was refreshing - thank you.

Addon Manager 2.8.0.2 for FSX ( bglmanx.dll ) - reported ZERO virus alerts.Couatl ( couatl.exe ) - reported 1 positive, from the Vipra engineAddon Manager for FS9 ( bglman.dll ) - reported ZERO virus alertsF

Anti-virus software isn't the problem. What is?

Hello Tom, Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I've had one other customer with this problem and it was solved by installing the latest addon-manager which was updated saturday-sunday. http://www.virtualis...donmanagerX.exeJust to be safe, I would re-install KSFO as well by re-downloading the same link, I posted an update over the weekend.http://www.flightbea...o_fsx_setup.exePlease let me know if this solved your problem, or if you still have trouble.

Why was an out-of-date add-on manager included in the down load?

Anti-virus software isn't the problem. What is?

First, I've posted the results, in order to check the assertion that the Addon Manager is more antivirus unfriendly than other simular flight sim modules, which is obviously not the case.BUT, I still get many reports from users having problem with their antivirus and FIXING THEM by properly configure it as instructed. That's why I say antivirus is the most common issue, because for most of the users that contacts us for such problems, it always turned out to be the antivirus in the end.That's why I've expected to see much worse results from Virustotal so, the only explanations I have, is either too many users are using outdated antivirus products OR, there's another category of security software that Virustotal doesn't check for, like anti-spyware or anti-adware, which generate false positive as well. Doesn't really change much: it's still an issue of other products which are creating issues due to false positives, for reasons I've already explained in the post I've made about the Flight1 module.

Why was an out-of-date add-on manager included in the down load?

The addon manager wasn't outdated and wasn't a "broken" version in any way. The version that came with KSFO when it was released was already the correct one right from the start but, I hadn't updated the Stand-Alone version on our website to include support for Flightbeam KSFO, but that couldn't create any crashes: it would simply resulted that, someone installing KSFO and then installing the Stand-Alone Addon Manager immediately after that, would not see KSFO anymore in the menu, but FSX wouldn't crash because of that, and it would been fixed by reinstalling KSFO anyway. This was fixed a few hours after KSFO was released so, it shouldn't have created too much trouble, and it wouldn't crash FSX in any case.