I have bitten the bullet and have gone over to P3d V4.2 as it supports 64bits now.

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate (not yet gone to Win10) I still have FSX installed but I need to unistall
it as I need the hard drive space (I have a multitude of airports etc). Therefore I would be grateful if
someone who has successfully done this (I know there must be many) give me some pointers, for
example do I need to install all my FSX airports including UK2000 and all my Orbx sceneries? as it
seems to me that all these sceneries will be left in place otherwise. I just need to know how do this
properly and cleanly so it has no effect on my system and no effect on P3d.

Thanks very much.

Clive

I think most attempts to take a shortcut path take a big risk in creating problems, as some sceneries need to install things in places outside the regular scenery folder, such as elevation correction files in scenery/world/scenery, and just adding a library entry for an already-installed FSX scenery will miss that, as well as potentially other stuff like effects files.

Another potential gotcha is to install P3D and then uninstall FSX (using the uninstaller) afterwards, because that can remove the FSX-specific versions of Simconnect that many addons still use in P3D.  You can reinstall Simconnect, but it gets messy quickly.

ORBX installation will go much quicker if FSX is still there, as it will use many of the already-installed files from the local FSX install instead of having to re-download gigs of data over the internet.

The best way, from a perspective of least risk of boogered add-ons, is to uninstall everything, then install P3D and everything from the ground up.  Even better, start the process on a fresh install of Windows...

If you have a massive amount of ORBX stuff (and didn't select the "create a backup" when installing them), you could try installing P3D with FSX still there, then install the ORBX stuff with FTXCentral, then once that's done, remove FSX manually by deleting the FSX directory (preferably by moving it to a backup drive in case there's something there you need later).  That should leave the Simconnect and side-by-side libraries undisturbed for P3D.  Then, make sure you have the latest installers, and install your other add-ons into P3D anew so that the installers get things placed correctly.

Oh, and Lorby's P3D Addon Manager is a must-have tool for managing a complex scenery configuration in P3Dv4.

Happy building!

 

 

Thanks Bob it does sound rather messy. Never gave simconnect a thought so thank you for bringing that up. I have installed P3dV4.2 outside of Program Files (x86) did not want to make
that mistake again and it works great, much better FPS than I have with FSX by the way. I installed all my Orbx stuff into P3d using FTX Central V3 and all is good. I did find Lorby P3d manager and worked out how to use it and all my scenery for P3d is installed on a separate drive using the xml file way of doing things, works great once you sort out how to go about it.

So to be clear I have FSX and P3d installed, they are not installed in the default directory of Program Files (x86) but in there own directory both on the same drive though. Most of the FSX Sceneries are in the addons directory except NL2000 which is outside. I did not create a backup when installing Orbx but I do have image of my whole C drive on another external drive so I can use the image to replace missing files if needed, but I am concerned out the simconnect files now you have bought that up.

Maybe I should just go slow and un-install a few airports at a time using Programs and Features, making sure all is okay before proceeding to the next batch, which I basically did when installing them, install one then run sim and check it before doing the next, slow but good.

Bob that's a nice system you have, overclocked to 5GHz too, mine is an old i7-950 overclocked to 4.080Ghz and gets a very warm but it is stable, working on getting an i7-4700K which is apparently much better than the 950.

Thanks for your suggestions appreciate it.

Clive

 

Oh P.S. I have only installed sceneries into P3d4.2 that have been upgraded to that particular simulator I have no tried to install anything that has not been made for P3d and they have been installed using their installers.

Clive

5 hours ago, catmar said:

Oh P.S. I have only installed sceneries into P3d4.2 that have been upgraded to that particular simulator I have no tried to install anything that has not been made for P3d and they have been installed using their installers.

That is a very good idea, i tested a lot of addons which are not officially P3Dv4 compatible, and almost all of them caused problems. My P3Dv4 is rock stable without them. I'm also getting better performance using XML metod for addons.

I'm not sure i understand your initial question, do you want just to uninstall FSX in order to gain free space, or you want to use some of the FSX Addons in P3Dv4? If you want to just uninstall FSX correctly, i have Windows 7 too, and i like to keep it clean. It is important to me to keep the registry as clean as as possible. It can be done much much simpler, this is my way to do it:

1. This is optional, it is required for the last step, in case you will ever want to reinstall FSX on this PC, without reinstaling Windows. Right click on FSX.exe, select properties, then details(i belive it's under details, i don't have FSX installed anymore)and note your FSX version - the number. SP2 should be 10.0.61472, acceleration 10.0.61637 for example

2. uninstall all FSX addons you can first. Becouse some of them may need licence reset, in case you ever want to reinstall it.  Some of them cannot be uninstalled via "Programs and Features", so left them in place for now.

3. After addons are uninstalled, uninstall FSX using Programs and Features. If Service packs are listed under Programs and Features, uninstall them first, then FSX. In any case, uninstall them all  Restart your PC(otherwise, it won't let you to delete FSX folder

4. After restart, delete your entire FSX main folder. Let us know if you run into any issues - sometimes you are not allowed to delete it, becouse "some program is still in use". It's usually about fonts installed by an addon, which are now used by OS. Then, delete FSX folders under "C:\Users\"YourUserName"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft", "C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft" and "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft". Also, delete FSX files folders under "Libraries\Documents" and "Libraries\Pictures". Empty recycle bin.

5. install CCleaner free version https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download and use "cleaner" and "registry" section to clean all leftovers. You can backup your registry first, but i never run into an issue with CCleaner. I'm using it on daily basis

6. Now, the optional step - download this and install it http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_installer_cleanup_utility.html Run it, and select FSX only and remove it. It can happen that only version numbers appear in the list, this is why i asked you to note this. Be careful with this tool, not to select anything else. Microsoft removed it from official support page, becouse you can easily run into issues if you accidentally select something else, which is a part of OS for example. But it is the only tool i know that removes every trace of FSX from system.

7. I'm not sure anymore if simconnect versions are uninstalled with FSX, but check under "Programs and Features" which versions are installed. You can install all of them again(and you should). P3Dv4 has installers for all simconnect versions, and they are located under "Prepar3D v4\redist\Interface". You shouldn't install RUS and JPN versions unless you are using those languages versions of P3D 

It looks complicated, but this will clean all registry entries too, which can be important for performance. If you think you don't need this, you can simple uninstall FSX via "Programs and Features" and delete all FSX related folders, listed above. 

I hope this helps

If disk space is what you are after, I would first back up the FSX directory in total, just in case you ever want to access something, later, like a favorite airplane.  In my case, I just copied it to my multi TB datadrive.

Then delete the FSX directory.  Bingo, disk space freed up.

Just leave the rest... that makes it very easy if you ever want to reinstall FSX.  You can even start up FSX from the backup drive if you ever need to.

As for font files.. yes, I had a couple of fonts that I could not delete..

Ended up opening the registry with Regedit, located each of them (search for the install location) and remove each line.. there were half a dozen in my case.  Then you can delete them.

Thanks Lodestar and Bert I will get back to you later as I have not got time to answer properly so I will be back later.
Regards and thanks

Clive

 

Edited May 25, 20188 yr by catmar

Not sure if this was already mentioned above but don't uninstall your ORBX scenery.  You can port is over to P3D v4.2 rather than re-downloading everything.  There is a thread on the ORBX forums about the correct procedure.  I learned the hard way when I deleted everything before I built my new computer and then had to spend copious amounts of time re-downloading.

Hi Lodestar and Bert,

Thanks very much for your detailed account of the procedures you use(d) I will make a copy and print it out so that I can follow
along when I decide to take the plunge and carry out the deletion of FSX.

Yes I need the space on my drive as it's a little tight with FSX and Prepared on there, it's okay for now but when I start to install
more Prepared scenery it will most likely cause problems so I have to get rid of FSX which will be sad because I have had it
for such a long time.

I have ccleaner and use it all the time and like you I have never had a problem with it. I do not have the latest version however
but not sure if I need it as I have never had a reason to update it.

I also have Ädvance Uninstaller Pro and never had a problem with that provided you ensure you do not delete something you
should not. So I think I am more or less prepared to uninstall and as I prevously stated I have an image of my C drive which I
use should I make an error.

Thanks very much guys
Regards

Clive

1 hour ago, MarkW said:

Not sure if this was already mentioned above but don't uninstall your ORBX scenery.  You can port is over to P3D v4.2 rather than re-downloading everything.  There is a thread on the ORBX forums about the correct procedure.  I learned the hard way when I deleted everything before I built my new computer and then had to spend copious amounts of time re-downloading.

Hi Mark,

I have already installed all my Orbx scenery into Prepared using FTX Central 3 so no problem there, I also managed to install My Traffic 6a into Prepared also. I am waiting for Aerosoft
to finish the Airbus for Prepared or maybe purchasing FSLabs A320 which is apparently a very good study aircraft with every button and knob working, so I have to decide one or the
other as there is not much point in having the two of them.

Thanks for your input.

Regards

Clive

Sounds like you are well on your way.  I have both the Aerosoft (for my previous install of FSX) and the A320 for P3D.  Both are good but the A320 are at another level and if you can afford it this is the way to go.  Sounds like you just need FSUIPC 5 and Activesky for P3D v4 and you are good to go.....unless of course you want to also throw in some PMDG aircraft.