Hey now, a few of us have voiced our support of FSDT and their products. Only a few decided to pile on.

I agree with Eric. I support fsdreamteam as a company and very talented people as you can see I always have my support banner. they have brought me lots of joy and many great scenery's that I never imagine would have been made well by anyone else or even done at all. They also try to push the tech side of things for the sim there are many misunderstandings and confusion about the add-on manger without that we wouldn't be able to have the scenery we have now and most people don't even bother reading the documentation. Umberto is always adding features to the add-on manger too help us out better, like the deactivation option. of course sometimes will get in error or a screw up with fsx no software is perfect. you wanna know something I don't use any antivirus software I hate them! they slow down my system and are a pain in the butt been fine without one for years. but anyways I'm just here to support the guys at fsdreamteam.

Good and valid points, but why is it that the QW 757 uses the same sytem? what for? (if that's really the case)

It uses the add-on manger and also flightbeam ksfo uses it its a software that qualitywings and flightbeam use for activation of the scenery or aircraft and also for other things as updating files for that specific product but Umberto could better explain.

Guys,I am not exactly a computer neophyte, nor did I join the simming community yesterday. Someone asked why I posted what I did.... After over two weeks, I have not been able to get my orginally perfectly operating aircraft flying again after having installed another vendor's scenery.First, I do not run an antivirus program (at all) on my FS machine. I download everything to my lap top first, virus check it on that machine and then install it on my FS machine. An antivirus program is not the cause of those nor even remotely related. I do run WIN7's firewall and have done so from the very first day of operating Win7. I also have UAC totally shut down. I do not allow any absolutely necessary processes to run in background.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. Now to extreme measures. I have removed both add-on's, gone to the registry and removed all traces of both programs. I have scrubbed the registery of the a/c related entries numerous times. Using WinNC, search harddrive for all files associated with either scenery or aircraft and remove them. Reboot. FSX works fine. No CTD. Reinstall a/c. During install it downloads BGLman, C++. and the supposedly new *.gau file. Load up FSX. At least no CTD this time. Select a/c and it loads. However, all of the guages are blank. Tried multiple (seemingly endless) reinstall strategies, including turning off the internet connection. No go. Same issue. Blank gauges.Not counting the week break from this whole waste of my time, I have spent the better part of two weeks trying to get at least my a/c back in operation. And what really chomps me is that the night before I was to leave for Europe, I contacted the producer of the a/c looking for some hint of what could be wrong, in a vain attempt to get a/c working before I went on travel. I used their trouble ticket system.To make a long story short, I was instructed to go join their forum and see if the issue had a fix there. I don't have time to read AVSIM's forums let alone someone else's. This last weekend I did join however, and could not find a topic that seem to address an issue like mine. I will say it again. I am not faulting anyone for the quality of their product. I have simply stated that I will never again purchase an add-on for FSX that does things to my system that I do not give it authority to do and / or I am not forwarned of this before I purhase the product. Even Microsoft gives us that authority on their updates (and there have been times when I rejected an MS update because I knew it to be flawed or caused other issues). That's my choice, and if that means that I am going to miss out on some add-on's, so be it.

Good and valid points, but why is it that the QW 757 uses the same sytem? what for? (if that's really the case)

At this time, the only non-protection related feature the QW757 use, is to enable HD textures easily without using strange tricks, otherwise is only used for protection. I worked with them when the airplane was already almost finished, without the chance to really discuss what additional features they might use.But, do you think it would have been better if they protect it differently, without the Addon Manager ? Doing this way, it's more resource efficient, because there's only one "Addon Manager" loaded, which handles multiple products. Instead, if all the protection code and the related anti-hacking features were moved in the Gauges or into *another* module, you'd end up having many executables doing similar things, for no specific reasons, which doesn't make much sense if all of them use Esellerate, which is the e-commerce partner they chose.And, as I've said already, fact they share our same module, meant all their customers got the user-controlled deactivation as soon as we added it, without the need for them to even update the airplane, and the same is true for the HD textures feature. Other developers that use HD textures need to instruct users not to touch anything in the FSX graphic settings, otherwise you'll lose the HD textures and have to exit from fsx, edit the fsx.cfg, save it and launch it again. We don't have any of such issue: the Addon Manager just sets the correct value in memory, and the display is immediately updated in real-time, without restarting. A small feature, but it is convenient, since they do have HD liveries, and one might even want to turn them on when cruising and turn them off when landing to save performances, something that is not possible without the Addon Manager.

Privacy concerns your personal data being used and/or transmitted to someone, to be used without your knowledge.

Sorry, but I will not accept that - it's pure nonsense.On my (that's MY) PC, privicy is what I consider it to be.What you've said simply makes no sense at all.

First, I do not run an antivirus program (at all) on my FS machine. I download everything to my lap top first, virus check it on that machine and then install it on my FS machine. An antivirus program is not the cause of those nor even remotely related.

The antivirus is just the most common cause, but I've listed many others.But that's not the main point, the point is you had an issue with a Virtuali product that, when you Trusted it in FSX asked you if you wanted to allow a module made by "VIRTUALI s.a.s di Umberto Colapicchioni", and if you believed this was cause of the problem, you should tried to get in touch with me, at least after getting no meaningful support from the scenery or the airplane developers.

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

Ok, this means, your system didn't load the Addon Manager that came with that scenery, otherwise the scenery would have worked.

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

That's to be expected. That airplane will quit to deskop, if the Addon Manager is not there.

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.

Yes, that's was a problem, you should have been better supported, and the best chance of obtaining this, would have been trying to get contact me.At least, I would have told you that, in order to remove any "trace" of the Addon Manager, there wasn't any need to scourge the registry, and you should simply replied YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager", which appeared when uninstalling the scenery that didn't work, and I might have told you that, if you wanted to bypass the automatic update of the Gauge, you could install the scenery and the airplane with the network disconnected.It's not a real fix but, while we worked at a solution, it would surely saved you some time and allowed to fly with the airplane anyway.

I have simply stated that I will never again purchase an add-on for FSX that does things to my system that I do not give it authority to do and / or I am not forwarned of this before I purhase the product. Even Microsoft gives us that authority on their updates (and there have been times when I rejected an MS update because I knew it to be flawed or caused other issues). That's my choice, and if that means that I am going to miss out on some add-on's, so be it.

Ok, but suppose there was a question like "do you want to update the xxxx airplane gauge ?" How do you know for sure it will not work, before trying it ? And, since you noticed the updated gauge was downloaded and you believe this updated caused the problem, perhaps you might tried by installing without the network connected ? Surely easier then trying the fix the registry, which wasn't really needed in any case.But I'm not trying to say everything we do is always correct, and I think you might have a point, even if you handled in the wrong way by posting it this way without contact me first (which, BTW, gave me a good chance to explain several things, and a good chance to some happy customers to show their support), so we'll updated all the installers now (I wrote them all, both FSDT's and both those from those two other developers so, updating them all in a very short time will not be a problem), adding such question so, whenever another product update will be downloaded, there will be a question before doing that.This will not of course automatically fix any possible problem: if the product you are installing *really* breaks backward compatibility with another one so the updated was really necessary, but you'll refuse to download it, the affect product will probably still stop working. The whole idea behind the automatic update is NOT to run into backward compatibility issues in the first place.But, at least, giving the choice to install or not the updates, will hopefully make users more comfortable with what's happening.

Esellerate, which is the e-commerce partner they chose.We don't have any of such issue: the Addon Manager just sets the correct value in memory, and the display is immediately updated in real-time, without restarting. A small feature, but it is convenient, since they do have HD liveries, and one might even want to turn them on when cruising and turn them off when landing to save performances, something that is not possible without the Addon Manager.

Thanx for the detailed explanation :) That info should be available on the QW website!

I would like to make a comment as an ordinary user.I purchase the QW 757. No problem buying or installing.Several days later I see an "Addon Manager" in my system I check that software and find that its from some unknown (to me) mob called Virtualli. I have never heard of nor installed any "Virtualli" software so I "do a Dalek" and eliminate it because, from my perspective, it is rogue software and I have no idea how it got on my PC or its specific function. Now if QW had indicated that their 757 installation included this software and what it was used for, I wouldn't have pulled the plug on it and caused myself another problem. Its one thing to install anti piracy software but its a different ball game if the user isn't told about it. I also think that the name "Addon Manager" is confusing in the flightsim world because it is has such an open ended description.

I would like to make a comment as an ordinary user.I purchase the QW 757. No problem buying or installing.Several days later I see an "Addon Manager" in my system I check that software and find that its from some unknown (to me) mob called Virtualli. I have never heard of nor installed any "Virtualli" software so I "do a Dalek" and eliminate it because, from my perspective, it is rogue software and I have no idea how it got on my PC or its specific function. Now if QW had indicated that their 757 installation included this software and what it was used for, I wouldn't have pulled the plug on it and caused myself another problem. Its one thing to install anti piracy software but its a different ball game if the user isn't told about it. I also think that the name "Addon Manager" is confusing in the flightsim world because it is has such an open ended description.

That combined with the fact that potential customers can't even read forum messages about possible user problems with e.g. Virtualli makes QW a definite no-go for me.Too bad as the BAe and the 787 did look promising.E.g.the A2A Spitfire with the super realisistic accu-sim module enhances FSX a lot and it doesn't need any of this stuff

I would like to make a comment as an ordinary user. I purchase the QW 757. No problem buying or installing.Several days later I see an "Addon Manager" in my system

If you never had the Addon Manager installed before, which seem to be the case from your description, the first time you saw the Addon Manager mentioned, was immediately after you installed the QW757, because FSX asked you if you wanted to trust the Addon Manager module from "VIRTUALI" that was just installed, and you clearly replied YES to this, and also replied YES to the subsequent question made by FSX, which asked if you want to run always run, or just once.So, there's plenty of notifications of a new installed module. To have our name listed in that dialog box, means we have to apply for an authenticode Trust certificate, which cost us an yearly fee, and the only purpose of paying for that certificate, is to allow you, the user, to clearly identify WHO made the module that FSX is trying to run, as soon as it gets installed.So, unless you are an FS9 user, were modules don't trigger a trust request and don't need to be signed to run (although we sign them anyway), you can't say you a module ran without your authorization and you had no chance to know who made it.We have a separate manual that covers just the Addon Manager that gets installed with all our products, and we have a FAQ on our website explaining what it does, I'll try to make a point with other developers they should probably include something like it in their products as well, but even with no manual, nothing is run in "stealth" mode, without your explicit consent, not in FSX anyway.

Always best to avoid stuff with crappy DRM & support the developers that don't treat customers like crooks

You are obviously free to decide to avoid any DRM which, btw, is obviously not "crappy", since it's probably one with the most liberal installation and reinstallation policies. But you are against any DRM, by principle, I guess nothing we'll convince you otherwise, it's just the number of product you'll be able to buy in the future will probably keep shrinking, since the only thing I've noticed compared to, let's say, 3 years ago, when were were one of the very *few* Flight sim developers using a DRM, is that a usage of some kind of protection became very common.What I cannot accept, instead, is your "treat customers like crooks" sentence, which really feel gratuitous, especially considering all previous posts made by many customers that knows the way we offer support.

Peanuts, popcorn, and pop, what a show!

Bottom line to the thread is that, whereas I very much like, and sympathize with Umberto - I have followed his many forum appearances since when there was just Cloud9, and my first addon aircraft was Captain Sim's first (fs9) 727.. '80's? Umberto has had to defend and explain this system many times - for years, and it's still perceived as a problem. I thought it was a problem then, and I still see it as a problem now. I don't like the 'demo' system. Last week I downloaded KSFO, used the RA Spitfire, did the startup and took off. By the time I was at 1200' - half of the the airport was black. Purchase killed. I had the same experience with KORD when it first came out - and it killed that sale for me. OrbX doesn't have any install issues: Flight1 doesn't have any install issues: FlyTampa doesn't have any install issues: REX doesn't have any install issues: Active Sky doesn't have any install issues: LeonardoSH (Maddog) has 'minor' issues occasionally, and so on. If this was a Flight1 product Tom, we others and Umberto would not be having this depressing thread. There's a lesson here. :(

Peanuts, popcorn, and pop, what a show!

Yeah no kidding.I feel bad for Umberto since he's spent the better part of his day here respondiong to posts and it past midnight already in Italy.

I wonder if under XP all the trusted certificates would be shown? I guess they would seeing they come from FSX, not the OS.Kind of shows what some of us have known for a long time:Few read pop up windows.Few read installation notes.Few read user manuals.Please note I used the word "few".

If you never had the Addon Manager installed before, which seem to be the case from your description, the first time you saw the Addon Manager mentioned, was immediately after you installed the QW757, because FSX asked you if you wanted to trust the Addon Manager module from "VIRTUALI" that was just installed, and you clearly replied YES to this, and also replied YES to the subsequent question made by FSX, which asked if you want to run always run, or just once.So, there's plenty of notifications of a new installed module. To have our name listed in that dialog box, means we have to apply for an authenticode Trust certificate, which cost us an yearly fee, and the only purpose of paying for that certificate, is to allow you, the user, to clearly identify WHO made the module that FSX is trying to run, as soon as it gets installed.So, unless you are an FS9 user, were modules don't trigger a trust request and don't need to be signed to run (although we sign them anyway), you can't say you a module ran without your authorization and you had no chance to know who made it.We have a separate manual that covers just the Addon Manager that gets installed with all our products, and we have a FAQ on our website explaining what it does, I'll try to make a point with other developers they should probably include something like it in their products as well, but even with no manual, nothing is run in "stealth" mode, without your explicit consent, not in FSX anyway.

Just a small point here: I installed the QW 757 and FSX came up with the message "do you wish to install" etc the virtuali module. I clicked "NO" because I had no idea what this was at the time. On starting up the QW 757 it immediately crashed FSX...the first time FSX ever crashed on my system. I realised this module was essential to run the QW 757 at all. I concede that the 757 pdf does refer to the module.I think Dougal makes a good point about this (see his previous posts). I'm all for anti-piracy, as you can imagine, but I don't think this is the way to go about it.