GSX, Couatl & Addon Manager not showing up in P3Dv4.5

[LukeK]

Life is too short to deal with an anti-virus that disables non-malicious software.

[Krielkip]

red5ive. Did you uninstall GSX and install it with Bullguard off or uninstalled? I also use Bullguard. Maybe this causes the problem. Although I use it for some 6 years now.

[Krielkip]

On February 22 Microsoft installed an update KB4023057 "Health tools" on my PC. It's to be found in Settings - Apps & Features. I think this was the date that GSX would not start anymore. I also had a lot of folders of which the date had changed to 22-02-2021. I'll uninstall KB4023057 and see if this will resolve the issue with GSX.

[red5ive]

Hans,

I uninstalled GSX and manually removed any directories I could find that had been left behind by the uninstaller.

I uninstalled Bullguard, rebooted the PC and then reinstalled GSX.

Obviously, after uninstalling Bullguard, Windows Defender and Firewall became active, and I think I disabled them temporarily while installing GSX.

Regards

[Ray Proudfoot]

I’ve had this problem with v5.1 a couple of times recently. On one occasion Addon Manager was not visible in the Addon menu. I restarted the PC and tried again.

This time Addon Manager was visible but many, perhaps all my purchased scenery and GSX was not registered. I chose the option to Register Serial but that seems wrong as they have already been registered.

Another reboot and everything is fine. I shall exclude Addon Manager folder in System monitoring and see how it goes. All this scenery was purchased ages ago and GSX too of course.

P3Dv5.1 was installed a couple of weeks ago and registering them in v5.1 seemed okay.

[barrytitchen]

Hi, Further to my earlier post and recent posts here from others, I also use Bullguard so there may be a link here; however, I'm nervous about uninstalling it at this stage. I find it interesting that the FSD team has not said anything on this yet!
BJT

[virtuali]

I find it interesting that the FSD team has not said anything on this yet!

Because the problem has been already discussed so many times and, there's just nothing we can do on our side, since the program works perfectly provided:

- Your antivirus is not mistakenly blocking it, so you must add the whole Addon Manager folder to the antivirus exclusion list. DO NOT "turn off" the antivirus, we never suggested to do that, both because it's not required, but mostly because most antivirus are not really "turned off", because the low-level service is always running so the solution is not to turn it off, but to add the whole Addon Manager folder to the A/V Exclusions.

- Your firewall is not mistakenly blocking our Live Updater, so you don't get the latest version. This is usually a combination of the antivirus problem: the antivirus might block some files and let pass others, or the firewall might block everything ( so you are stuck with an old version) causing a mixup of new and old files that will likely result in the software not loading.

- Some of your Windows libraries might be outdated. Our Live Update obviously installs all the required runtimes, but sometimes they don't work UNTIL THE NEXT REBOOT.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Umberto. My P3Dv5 install was fine this morning. I flew a circuit around Zurich and all was well.

I don’t have a third party anti-virus. Defender is fine for me. I have added Addon Manager to the exclusion list this morning. It will take a few days to establish if that has done the trick.

[barrytitchen]

Hi, many thanks FSD Team for getting back to me. I'll continue working the problem as I have done all the actions recommended in this forum. Flying without the realism of GSX2 is just not the same for me. Regards, BJT

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Umberto, since adding Program Files(x86)\Addon Manager to my exclude list for Windows 10 scanning everything has been fine.

[virtuali]

Hi Umberto, since adding Program Files(x86)\Addon Manager to my exclude list for Windows 10 scanning everything has been fine.

Of course. That's what we always said to do, whenever the antivirus is involved.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Of course. That's what we always said to do, whenever the antivirus is involved.

I’ve never had to exclude that folder in a couple of years of running Windows 10. Clearly something has changed in the OS.

[virtuali]

I’ve never had to exclude that folder in a couple of years of running Windows 10. Clearly something has changed in the OS.

Sure it has. Antivirus definitions are updated very often.

But that's not the main point. We don't suggest to add the Addon Manager "only" to prevent the antivirus to possibly block it, it's a best practice in any case, because even when something "works", the antivirus is still affecting it heavily. Each time an executable tries to open a file, the antivirus will scan it in the background, and this can have an huge impact on performances or slow down operations a lot. Recreating the airport cache in GSX when you add/remove a scenery usually takes 5-7 seconds, but if the antivirus is not Excluded this can easily go up to 40-50 seconds or even more, if you have *lots* of sceneries.

Whenever I install a new system from scratch, the FIRST thing I do is:

- Add entire simulator folder ( FSX, P3D, MSFS ) to the antivirus Exclusions

- If I keep additional sceneries installed on other drivers/folders, I also add all of these to the antivirus Exclusions

- The whole Addon Manager folder, of course.

- Every other folder that might contain executable add-ons. If you bought them from reputable vendors there's nothing to fear.

This is the only way to be sure the antivirus won't interfere and you'll always get the best possible performances.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Umberto,

If the forum had a like option I would have used it. I notice in the pinned topics this info isn't included. A suitable candidate surely? 

[Krielkip]

Hello Umberto,

I finally succeeded in solving my problem with GSX. I reinstalled the client of P3D V4.5 HF3 and now GSX is working again. Maybe a hint for other users too.

Regards,

Hans