18 minutes ago, Jarnie said:

I get the impression that the setup might take a while but after that it is so simple and fast.

I think that's like many things PC-related - a bit of time spent setting things up initially pays off from there onwards.

I choose whther I'm doing military or civil - then choose my geographical area. All done in around three clicks.

Also - I have specialised "custom" preset groups for (say) only the FBW A320 plus my favourite area, with everything else de-activated.

Another great benefit not mentioned here, but often brought up in other threads: debugging. If you come across some weird issue, it's the simplest thing to narroww it down with Linker, using the "half splitting" procedure. As an extra precaution, I always give newly installed addons a "Test" tag (nicely coloured) which I then convert to "OK" if all is well.

The help in debugging has saved me many hours of grief.

I could go on - but one more thing: Bad_T (apart from being a genius coder) is very active and listens to all our problems or insane requests. So generous to let us have it all for free.

Wow I am now even more impressed. 

 

Sorry to continue with this and perhaps I should start a new thread?

It's about FSUIPC and maybe other addons which the user might like to run regardless.

FSUIPC only seems to get installed running the .exe which places (it did when I installed it) directly into the Community folder. 

Is it ok to place such addons into the Community folder directly rather than have them part of the Addons Linker?

I am guessing that it is ok but just wanted to confirm it.

How do others have FSUIPC installed?

 

Yes, you can.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Jarnie said:

How do others have FSUIPC installed?

There are a few (small footprint) addons/utilities that I can't be bothered moving - just in case there might be a problem udating them. I'm a long-time FSUIPC user and just let it do its thing in the Community Folder.

What *does* annoy me, however, are the payware addons (scenery or aircraft) that insist on going into the CF without giving you the option (in advance) of installing elsewhere. I know those too can be moved using the Linker, but I just leave them there (and complain!!) ... as the procedure would have to be repeated each time there was an update to that addon. To be honest, the whole Community Folder (and its encryption) has always been a royal PITA - and makes me want to fire up X-Plane!!

Edited April 7, 20251 yr by Adamski_NZ

2 hours ago, Adamski_NZ said:

What *does* annoy me, however, are the payware addons (scenery or aircraft) that insist on going into the CF without giving you the option (in advance) of installing elsewhere.

I imagine that MAYBE they do that in an effort to stop people giving away copies.

Thanks for the feedback on FSUIPC

 

BTW I just removed X-Plane from my SSD drive to ensure I had enough space for my (new) Addons Folder. I hadn't fired it up for a year or two and couldn't see any reason to retain it installed.

 

Edited April 7, 20251 yr by Jarnie

I find that Addons Linker is a great way of (forcing) organising where I store downloaded addons (in subfolders) which then also makes creating a backup so easy. 

Addon-Linker, one of the first, and in my opinion outstanding pieces of  freeware produced for MSFS.

Bit late to this party, but just to add my praise for Addons Linker. I've got about 1600 addons in my addons folder these days, and literally can't imagine trying to run 2020/2024 without it. As folk have said, it gives you the ability to organise your sim world any way you want, plus things like one-click clean ups (have a preset with nothing loaded) to let you effectively clear out your community folder in case of testing, SUs etc.

And the nice thing is that it is using clever programming and basic OS/Windows techniques, rather than being dependent on anything Asobo provides. Which means Asobo can continue to scr*w things as they see fit without affecting the Linker's functionality.

And as has been mentioned, Bad_T is extremely helpful and responsive to requests.

Definitely the single most useful tool for MSFS.

On 4/7/2025 at 4:35 AM, Jarnie said:

Sorry to continue with this and perhaps I should start a new thread?

It's about FSUIPC and maybe other addons which the user might like to run regardless.

FSUIPC only seems to get installed running the .exe which places (it did when I installed it) directly into the Community folder. 

Is it ok to place such addons into the Community folder directly rather than have them part of the Addons Linker?

I am guessing that it is ok but just wanted to confirm it.

How do others have FSUIPC installed?

Only the WASM component of FSUIPC should be installed into the Community folder (and this cannot be changed), The application itself (the FSUIPC7.exe) should be installed in a non-windows protected folder (e.g. not under the windows Program Files or Documents folders) which you select during the installation process (defaults to C:\FSUIPC7).

There should be no issues using the MSFS Add-on linker with FSUIPC (WASM module), but you should probably always have the WASM running when FSUIPC is running (for access to lvars/hvrs/bvars/presets/calculator code) although this is not required(and won't be needed if you do not use the facilities it provides.

John

On 4/5/2025 at 3:53 PM, Jarnie said:

Thanks Peter.

I will get 7-zip.

I need to investigate Addon Linker further after finding out that it can control what files (which I assume are in the community folder) are loaded for a given flight although apart from aircraft (easy) one would need to remember what scenery addons are required (not so easy unless familiar with the flight)?

Regards

John

 

One nice feature about addon linker is the ability to bring up a map. This map shows all of the addons you have, linked and unlinked, and shows you what ones are currently linked. You can also load a flightplan in this map, allowing you to enable specific addons along your route. You can select, link, and unlink, directly on this map.