Addon Manager disappeared after installation of GSX update

[Mischka43]

OK...Adrenalin is going down again, i managed to replace the three folders in WINSXS with some workaorunds (ownership and so on).... FSX ist still alive, but still without Addon Manager, GSX and without alls the Airports managed by Addon Manager.
By the way: i did a FSX ACC Repair Install yesterday with no success

Greetings, Michael

[virtuali]

PS: By the way t is starting to be  really annoying, that addon manager is soooo comnplicated - and don't blame others, I never had so much problems with any addon.

The Addon Manager has only helped you finding a problem you always had, which would have been surfaced anyway, sooner or later.

[Mischka43]

That is my different philosophy - a problem is not a problem, as long everything is working ;-)
Even IF somethin is not perfectly programmed (like FSX oder Win7)... for me it is not the esthetics of flawless code, but the use in everyday life ;-)
But if You tell me WHAT the problem is now, i would see the usefulness of professional programing perfection.

You are right, that the thing is hell complicated because of the messy programming in Win7 and FSX (that is why i would like to keep addons more simple, but working). Its consuming so muich of Your (and our - the users -) time to make it run again.

By the way... dependency walker when analysing simconnect.dll says MSVCR80.DLL is missing, showing a path in Winsxs, but the file IS actually there. It has 618KB, but the MSVCR80.DLL I dowloaded yesterday and put into FSX root folder (and in System32 today) has 612 KB only.

I tried to replaxe the version in Winsxs by the downloaded one, dependency walker still says it is missing. Does it need  reboot?
And is this any hint to the "problem that anyway ould have come along"?

Thanks and Greetings,
Michael

[virtuali]

By the way... dependency walker when analysing simconnect.dll says MSVCR80.DLL is missing, showing a path in Winsxs, but the file IS actually there. It has 618KB, but the MSVCR80.DLL I dowloaded yesterday and put into FSX root folder (and in System32 today) has 612 KB only.

You CANNOT just place that file there, and expect it would work! If it was that easy, I would have said that. This would have been possible if that .DLL wasn't Side-by-side, but in that case, it won't be possible for multiple addons to load different versions of it, so the one placing the right .DLL would "win" against the others.

A Side-by-side .DLL is way more complex, it has multiple entries in the registry, there's an XML file that indicates it's version, there's a policy file indicating what to do if you have a program compiled with an old version if it can use the newest one, etc.

It's a totally convoluted system, which is so complex, that when something goes wrong with it, sometimes it might just be easier to reinstall Windows than trying to fix. I'm trying to find you alternative solutions that won't involve reinstalling Windows, but surely you should NEVER try to manually place an MSVCR80.DLL somewhere, and expect it to work, if only because it's not the only file that belongs to the 2005 runtimes (there's also MSCVP80.DLL and MSVCM80.DLL), but they are not "normal" .DLL, they work together with the registry, and their XML and policy files in the WinSxS folder.

Basically, you either fix it using installers or repair options in the installers, or you don't.

Sometimes, you can fix it by removing every instance of the 2005 runtimes from the control panel, then reinstall all them. Fact their installer is always called VCREDIST_X86.EXE doesn't help, because it's easy to confuse which one is which.

But Dependx.exe is your friend: as long is telling you that Simconnect cannot be loaded because MSVCR80.DLL cannot be loaded, you can be SURE your problem is related to the VC++ 2005 runtime libraries, so you can stop chasing ghosts and concentrate only on that issue, because it cannot be anything else.

[Mischka43]

OK, happy to have found the problem, thanks! Chasing ghosts is so frustrating ;-)

Deinstalling the 2005 runtimes was in a lot of Your advices and  I tried before posting the problem, but there was one ugly thing: some of the 2005 c++ things wanted a source file  file to deintsall, suggesting it in a TEMP Folder or looking for a non existing msi...wellknown problem, but i did not find a solution .... so it did not deinstall. Ho to deinstall those?

Maybe I should have taken those resistance aigainst deinstallition more serious? There are 5 (!)) versions of VC++ 2005 (x86 and x64) which resist deinstallation.

Moreover - are there English and German versions of that installed? At leats there is an option to chose among ENglish or German, when downloading the installers....

And the more I read about VC++2005, the more it looks like a total desaster from Microsoft. Why is  Addon Manager relying/ depending on those bad files?

And by the way - thanks for not suggesting to reinstall WIn7 and /or FSX!

Greetings,
Michael
 
Edit: I managed to get rid of the old VC++2005 installs, which was hard work: only way functioning was this advice from a microsoft forum, it might help other simmers frustrated  by the mess with VC++2005:

"To all fellow sufferers of this horrible C++ install plague, here is what worked for me:

Download uninstall http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html

Find the C++2005 application in REVO and click uninstall but select the bubble with ADVANCED MODE scan

After it runs advanced mode scan, click checkbox for "select all" and DELETE all the entries which deletes all registry entries. It looks like pages of data being erased and it seemed scary but I knew I could download the file and install if I needed it (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3387

I could see in the control panel (add or remove programs) that the cursed C++2005 was finally gone.

I discovered the software I was using (Viacad PRO V8 Beta) was installing the C++ 2005 and getting some conflict with a previous C++2005 install. I'd tried the suggestions in 20 threads but could not uninstall the 2005 previously installed version (continous loop of asking for disk/location of vcredist.msi).  Once REVO uninstalled it, I uninstalled the ViaCad pro & re-installed it. It worked fine.

I checked the control panel (add or remove  programs) and could see the C++2005 was now installed by the program and all worked well. It just was a matter of getting rid of the stubborn prior version (which would not leave via control panel, sxstrace, & 10 other methods).

If your newly installed program is not installing the C++2005 with its installation, then just download the right C++2005 version from microsoft link above."

From here:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/54746791-4af9-4bf6-86f4-9565d3850730/manual-uninstall-of-visual-c-2005-redistributable-version-805072742?forum=vcgeneral

[Mischka43]

Yeah! After three days of working hard on the problem THAT did the job: brutal removing the resistant VC++2005 (which was nasty) and reinstalling VC++2005, reinstallig GSX ... voila!

I hope, this piece of research can be usefull for others to get rid of the missing of addon manager!

Thanks for useful hints!
Michael

[virtuali]

Yeah! After three days of working hard on the problem THAT did the job: brutal removing the resistant VC++2005 (which was nasty) and reinstalling VC++2005, reinstallig GSX ... voila!

I was sure you would eventually fix it. The main issue is, is not very easy to uninstall/reinstall the VC++ 2005 libraries but in fact, is of the suggested course of actions we always indicate when there's a missing menu problem.

We tried to minimize the chance of this issues, by switching to the VC++ 2013 libraries, that are not Side-by-side, so they are easier to manager, and there's only one version of them installed at any time but, unfortunately, it's Simconnect itself which is still depending on them, and there's just nothing we can do, other than stop supporting FSX, and switch to P3D.