We use the proper P3D installation method, the one based on the add-on.xml package method, and we don't install anything into the main folder of the sim, like any proper native P3D product should do.
Now that P3D have a new release, the advantages of this method should be obvious:
- Normally, you are not required to uninstall ANY FSDT product.
- If you are just Uninstalling/Reinstalling the sim without taking extra actions, all the sim configuration, including which addons using the add-on.xml package method has been previously installed, will still stay installed, so there's nothing you'll have to do at the first start: they will just work.
- If, in addition to Uninstalling/Reinstalling the sim, you are also removing the sim local preferences at %APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D V4, maybe because you wanted to start with a clean Prepar3D.CFG file and a clean Add-ons.cfg file, since we install our add-on.xml files in the proper folder (a sub-folder of the Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons folder ), Auto-discovery will be triggered on the next startup, so the sim will ASK if you want to re-enable all your FSDT addons (and other addons that installed their add-on.xml in the Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons folder ), which were already enabled in the old installation. You will only have to accept the request the sim will do at the next start to re-enable the add-ons.
- The only case you'll have to reinstall the FSDT addons, is if you, in addition to removing the %APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D V4 folder, you also remove Documents\Prepar3D V4 Addons as well. In that case, you'll have to reinstall the addons, to have the installer recreate the add-on.xml files.
- Product reactivation has always been entirely unrelated to installing/uninstalling, both the product or the sim. The ONLY time you require to reactivate an FSDT product is when you change major hardware components, or when you reinstall Windows from scratch using the option to remove all your settings.
