LOL! You hit the nail on the head Mike - I have my reinstallation well organized so it's painless. I usually use the patch but if I feel there are a lot of different areas in the patch, I might skip it.

I look at it as a cleanup. I've seen too many things pile up through the years with FSX and now P3d that are easily solved by a full reinstall.

EVERY time you have an aborted session, whether it be P3D or Windows - there is always the possibility of crap building up leading to corrupted files etc.

To me doing a full install every now and then is simply a maintenance necessity to keep my system trouble free.

 

Vic

thanks for everyone's help on this!

in fact I never did need the academic patch (not sure it would have even worked) however someone kindly provided me with the correct professional patch and after some issues with FSUIPC4 have managed to get everything working again!