Renaming Community Folder Mods

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

43 minutes ago, ark said:

I have now setup the Addon Linker as well. Do you leave the shortcuts in the Community folder during a MSFS update?

Thx,

Al

Not sure the actual Update cycle matters, but after the update, you would want to start with your mods disabled, so I agree with Jim..

[ark 1,288]

4 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

... but after the update, you would want to start with your mods disabled...

Good point!

[kaosfere 3,115]

Addons Linker contains presets.    If you don't have one, creating one before the next update will mean all you have to do is start Addons Linker, right click, "Disable all addons".   You can then enable things one by one for testing (always a good idea) or if you're feeling bold hit the presets button in the top left, select your saved preset, click OK, and everything will instantly be re-enabled for you the way it was before the upgrade.

[ark 1,288]

1 hour ago, kaosfere said:

Addons Linker contains presets.    If you don't have one, creating one before the next update will mean all you have to do is start Addons Linker, right click, "Disable all addons". 

It is not clear to me how you create an Addons Linker preset. I see the window to load one if you have a preset, but don't see how to 'save' a preset which I assume simply defines what addons you want active.

Edited October 21, 2020 by ark

[kaosfere 3,115]

1 hour ago, ark said:

It is not clear to me how you create an Addons Linker preset.

Don't feel bad, it took me a little bit, too.  It's not inherently obvious.  Right click in the left frame and there's a menu option to create a new preset.

(@Bad_T, maybe  something for improvement in a future release.   Perhaps making a shortcut for it in the menubar, or adding a "save new preset" button in the presets window?)

[ark 1,288]

6 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

Right click in the left frame and there's a menu option to create a new preset.

Ah, thanks very much!

Al

[Virtpilot 150]

Hmm, why I can´t drag any of my addons from the community folder to the addon folder I created inside of the program? Do they have to be on the same drive? I have my  community folder on my C drive and I wish to create an addon folder to D drive.

[cobalt 798]

On 10/20/2020 at 1:34 PM, Bert Pieke said:

I find that moving items to a separate folder is the foolproof way to go.

MSFS will try to load everything in Packages, and "fooling" it may lead to trouble..

Just create an MSFS Addons folder outside your MSFS structure, but on the same disk.

Then either manually drag folders in and out, or better, use the Addons Linker to create and manage shortcuts in the Community folder.  I currently have zero actual folders in the Community folder, only managed shortcuts and that makes things nice and tidy.

It does not have to be on the same disc. I have my MSFS addons folder on a different drive from MSFS and it works fine. The advantage in doing this is that it avoids a huge buildup of data files in my C drive where MSFS is located.

[Virtpilot 150]

Does this program needs some Java or something to work?

 

[bszuch 95]

As the mod count continues to grow, I have found the Addon Linker is fantastic.  Author is continually communicating with folks making requests and has been prolific in updating his software.

I created separate directories for each state (United States here...) and it makes turning on just what is needed for a given flight extremely  simple.  I have left the few payware addons intact in the 

Community folder, but everthing else is a managed link.  Can't speak highly enough about the Addon Linker program!

[Bad_T 581]

4 hours ago, kaosfere said:

(@Bad_T, maybe  something for improvement in a future release.   Perhaps making a shortcut for it in the menubar, or adding a "save new preset" button in the presets window?)

@kaosfere: i have added a little button in the toolbar, i will also add it in the menu bar with a shortcut that's a good idea. The next version (will be released before the end of the week) will also include the possibility to apply multiple presets at once, so if you have a preset for France and one for Italy you will be able to apply both at the same time (with the current version you would have to select one of the two and then add others addons manually). I think i will also add a 'preset' menu so that it will be a lot more visible.

@Virtpilot : no it's not using java, all components needed should be installed by default if you have Windows 10, just drag&drop the files in the zip somewhere and it should be ok.

@bszuch thank you for your nice comment !

 

Edited October 21, 2020 by Bad_T

[Virtpilot 150]

Finally got it working. Great tool indeed. 

[smoothchat 99]

Be aware that with scenery mods, the Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\contents.xml file is updated when the sim finds them for the first time. 

An index file is also created in the \Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryIndexes folder. 

If you remove the mod folder (or rename it), the original reference remains in the content.xml file and associated index file.

I'm not sure if this causes any issues, but it is untidy.

Edited October 22, 2020 by smoothchat