Couatl64_P3D.exe - Entry Point Not Found **WINDOWS 7 is no longer supported**

[Captain Lars]

I use Windows 7 and experience the same problems. I tried Achmed's solution attempt for several days actually but to no avail, couatl scripting engine won't start because it has been modified. I own GSX part 1, Zurich, Honolulu, Vancouver, Memphis and Louisville (EUR 147,15 for me) and none of these work any more, showing only docking bridges.

Please change the one character in couatl64_P3D.exe from "0" to "1" and ideally make an announcement of how to obtain the necessary "api-ms-win-downlevel-ole32-l1-1-1.dll". An alternate solution would be that you provide us with an installer from the beginning of february so that I can use my products.

Thank you in advance
Lars

[virtuali]

As I've said, several times by now:

- Windows 7 is unsupported since January 2020, and we repeated this over and over many times when asked during the past 2 years, keep saying what IS happening right now: that at a certain point, any update in the MS libraries and/or VC++ compilers that Microsoft released would break compatibility with Windows 7 at any time, urging users to upgrade.

- I don't think you can just change a .dll like that but, as I've said so many times, we don't have ANY means to test it, since nobody at FSDT uses Windows 7 since years, you cannot even buy a copy, and while Microsoft DOES let freely download an OS Image to be used on a Virtual Machine ( that was a way I tried to pursue to be able to test the problem ), but they only have the 32 BIT version of Windows 7 for some reason.

- I already linked a site where you could download that 1-1 .dll but that's stops there because, again, there's no way for us to know if it works.


Something you can try is using the 32 BIT version of Couatl, it should still work and before we had a 64 bit version, this was used for all simulators. To enable it, open this file:

Documents\Prepar3d V5 add-ons\Fsdreamteam Addon Manager\ADD-ON.XML

Look for this line:

<Path>C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager\couatl64\Couatl64_P3D.exe</Path>

and change it to:

<Path>C:\Program Files (x86)\Addon Manager\couatl\Couatl.exe</Path>

This assuming a default installation, if you installed elsehwere, your paths will look different, so makes your changes accordingly. This will configure it to use the 32 bit version of the program, maybe it will work better in Windows 7.

[Captain Lars]

Thank you, I did as you said and it works. There's a delay of about 1/2 second when commanding the GSX menu, but of what I have tested, everything seems to work. Is there any downside of not using the 64Bit version, any functionality missing? I run Windows 7 64Bit and P3D 4.5 HF2.

For the time being, the work-around is fine, but I still think you should fix this (despite of what you explained).

[Captain Kevin]

For the time being, the work-around is fine, but I still think you should fix this (despite of what you explained).

But how do they fix it when they can't test it.

[Captain Lars]

For the time being, the work-around is fine, but I still think you should fix this (despite of what you explained).

But how do they fix it when they can't test it.

I volunteer as Beta tester when they try to tackle this.

[virtuali]

Is there any downside of not using the 64Bit version, any functionality missing? I run Windows 7 64Bit and P3D 4.5 HF2.

I think you'll lose the Custom camera views, because those are only available in the P3D4.5+ version of Simconnect, but the 32 bit version is linked with the FSX Simconnect, which doesn't have those.  But I think this is better than being cut off from ALL future updates, which would have been the case if you used an older installer (installed with the network disconnected).

Other than that, I don't think there would be any real differences, since Couatl.exe it's a separate executable, it has its own separate 4GB address space, which is even overkill considering it hardly takes more than 200-300MB of RAM.

For the time being, the work-around is fine, but I still think you should fix this (despite of what you explained).

Sorry, but I don't agree.

We are free from any support obligation to do anything for Windows 7 in January 2020, when it went completely out of support, and asking to do anything for Windows 7 now, more than 2 years later, is just as unreasonable as asking to continue to support Windows XP, which we also used to support years ago.

OS do have a life cycle, and the one for Windows 7 ended 2 years ago, and this is completely irrelevant how good/bad it was, it's not OUR decision when and how stop supporting it, it has been decided by Microsoft years ago, they started to alert users a long time ago, and when you decide against all common sense to continue to use an unsupported OS years past its due date, you do it at your own risk and you must be prepared to accept the consequences, for example not being able to find an older installer.

You want to live dangerously and stay with an old OS forever ? ( nothing last "forever" anyway, your PC will break or you would want a new one, which will come with Windows 10 or 11 ) Fine, but the first thing you should do, is a BACKUP of all installers of the software you bought, because you just can't expect the vendor would keep legacy installers always available. Bandwidth and disk space on the cloud is NOT free, it has a monthly cost that is based both on the bandwidth used but also the space taken so, it has some extra cost for us, even if nobody downloads it, and that's just another aspect of what stopping support means.

A real world example anybody can understand:

When Apple stopped selling 32 bit iPhone/iPad/Macs, they started alerting developers that 32 bit apps at first won't be accepted anymore in their App Store, and eventually they would be phased out.

When this happened, hundreds of thousands of apps were REMOVED from the App Store, they were lost forever unless a local backup of the installer was made, but it was no longer possible to download them again from Apple, without even considering they won't run on newer OS or devices anyway, but that's not really the point, the point was you couldn't DOWNLOAD anymore, even if you bought them, even if you wanted to use them on the older OS or the older device they were brought from.

I'm sure if Apple did anything wrong or not 100% completely legal, class actions/suits would have happened, and this is exactly the same. You want to use a legacy OS/device past its due date ? Fine, but backups are your own responsibility, you can't put that onus on the developer, forever.

Well, in fact, is not even "the same", because Apple being in control of the complete hardware/software/marketplace system, was the only one deciding when and how cutting off legacy apps from users, we mostly depend on what Microsoft does with its updates and tools. 

[Captain Lars]

FSDT is updated via the updater. You press the button and that's it. The updater tells you nothing about a new installer being available, or that you stopped supporting Windows 7. Actually I keep an awful lot of old installers, but I simply wasn't aware that something like this was going to happen.

I couldn't care less about Windows 10, as long as it works for me, it works. It's not "reckless", it's self-determined. The Apple example you cited confirms my choice never to buy an Apple product. Apple is for people who like to live on the receiving end, it seems.

Any chance you could leave an installer of beginning of february here on dropbox or anywhere for the folks in this thread?

[virtuali]

FSDT is updated via the updater. You press the button and that's it. The updater tells you nothing about a new installer being available, or that you stopped supporting Windows 7.

That's because we don't know, for sure, Windows 7 would stop to work NOW. It was nice it worked until now so, instead, are you suggesting we should have intentionally BANNED Windows 7 from the updater 2 YEARS ago, when official support ended so, on January 2020 ?

Actually I keep an awful lot of old installers, but I simply wasn't aware that something like this was going to happen.

This is going to happen for all your software, eventually, some soon, some later. I don't think you could possibly say you didn't know Windows 7 died 2 years ago, Microsoft surely must have sent you plenty of alerts about the phasing out.

Which means, from January 2020, you should have started to keep BACKUP of EVERY software you buy, that's a general rule, it's really not relevant to FSDT.

I couldn't care less about Windows 10, as long as it works for me, it works. It's not "reckless", it's self-determined. The Apple example you cited confirms my choice never to buy an Apple product. Apple is for people who like to live on the receiving end, it seems.

You are free to do your wrong decisions, I'm not not contesting them ( you will get Windows 10 or 11, eventually, hardware is not ethereal ), I only cited Apple to point out, as being so much in the public scrutiny as they are, it's clear if they did *anything* that wasn't entirely legal, we would have know by now.

So, clearly, there's no such thing as a right to continue to use an obsolete product on an obsolete OS combined to the right to always be able to redownload it at any time.

That's what the point I was trying to make. Surely Apple couldn't arbitrarily remove an obsolete program IF YOU MADE A BACKUP OF, so they obviously didn't do that, but you cannot expect or demand for the software vendors to let you access their download infrastructure to get a copy of the legacy installer which you didn't do a backup for, at any time, without any foreseeable time limitation.

Any chance you could leave an installer of beginning of february here on dropbox or anywhere for the folks in this thread?

Dropbox sharing has limits, is not really meant for public releases, once you exceed a certain transfer quota ( which is easy to surpass with a 2.5 GB
installer like GSX ), Dropbox will block the account so no, it's not a workable solution.

Using the 32 bit version of Couatl.exe, which seems to work, is WAY better, because this way you can continue to get updates.

[Captain Lars]

Can you or anyone please point me to the place where you can download this 2.6 GB installer (generally and even for the current one)? The one I found here https://www.fsdreamteam.com/products_gsx.html has 634 KB, which means no 'game'-files like textures etc. are included. Also it says "last updated 30-gen-22" which I suppose means 'gennaio' = january.
Or how am I supposed to build an installer including game-files worth of 2.6 GB out of it? How to do this?

[virtuali]

The small installer only downloads the rest of the file, which are more recent, since there's no need to keep updating the smaller installer (that's the point).

If you are asking for an older installer that might work on Windows 7, then no, no point asking, because we don't have it. As already discussed, the best solution is NOT using a older installer and be forever cut off from updates, but rather using the 32 bit version of the Couatl executable, which seems to work, so you can continue getting updates.

[Captain Lars]

I get your point. However, you suggested multiple times in this thread that as users of an unsupported operating system, we should backup installers, so that we can go back to one of these if something breaks. I quote you in this thread:

- Install GSX from a previous installer you still have, WITH THE NETWORK DISCONNECTED, so it won't update. Of course, won't be able to update GSX anymore, exactly like you are not able to update Windows 7 anymore.

If you followed sane backup procedures, and have a fairly recent copy of the installer, installing it without a network connection should get you a version that was current at the time you made the backup. If I decided to say with Windows 7 for some reason, I would started doing backups of everything I bought 2 years ago.

As I've said already, if you run an older installer with the network disconnected, it will work with that version, just you won't be able to UPDATE again so, you would be exactly in the same situation MICROSOFT has already put you 2 years ago: no more Windows Updates for Windows 7 and no more support.

When you download the installer, at the end of the installation it will ASK YOU if you want to KEEP the installer you just downloaded in the Documents\GSX_Installer folder. The Document folder has been chosen under the assumption ANY user SHOULD do REGULAR Backups of his own Documents folder.

I understand that by using the small 600 KB installer, this installer would then, of course, load the newest files, which already don't work anymore with Win7. So how is this "installing wiht the network disconnected" going? Where would I get such an installer that I can backup on my machine? Generally speaking and for the future, since the 32Bit version can break anyday, too, if I understand you correctly.

Thank you.

[virtuali]

I understand that by using the small 600 KB installer, this installer would then, of course, load the newest files, which already don't work anymore with Win7. So how is this "installing wiht the network disconnected" going? Where would I get such an installer that I can backup on my machine? Generally speaking and for the future, since the 32Bit version can break anyday, too, if I understand you correctly.

You are asking your question, because you have probably forgot that, when the small installer downloads the main files, which are current at the time of the installation, it downloads them in your Documents\GSX_Installer folder and, at the end of the installation, it will ask you if you want to keep them for "future installs".

The choice of your Documents folder it's not obviously random: EVERYBODY should BACKUP his Documents folder regularly! And of course, when you are using an OS you KNOW ( because Microsoft told you so many times ) that has been gone out of support for 2+ years, when you see the sentence "for future installs", you should use common sense that, probably, it's best to DO what it's being asked and KEEP the backup.

But again, that's entirely besides the point. Why you keep insisting on the older installer, when it seems the 32 bit version of the *current* software works just fine, so you not only can keep using the products, but you can even keep them updated ( unless some day even the 32 bit version might stop to work, we just don't know )

[Captain Lars]

You are asking your question, because you have probably forgot that, when the small installer downloads the main files, which are current at the time of the installation, it downloads them in your Documents\GSX_Installer folder and, at the end of the installation, it will ask you if you want to keep them for "future installs".

I didn't know that because I always use the FSDT Updater...

( unless some day even the 32 bit version might stop to work, we just don't know )

Exactly.

[virtuali]

I didn't know that because I always use the FSDT Updater...

The Updater only does what the name says: update the product. But you MUST have used the installer at some time, you just forget about it, ignored the message, failed to backup your Documents folder, so you lost it. It's not possible to even use the updater, if you never ran the installer at least once.

( unless some day even the 32 bit version might stop to work, we just don't know )

Exactly.

Not sure what you mean with "exactly". I should be saying that...

My point was, once you have an installer that WORKS for you, YOU SHOULD DO A BACKUP, because that's what you are supposed to do BECAUSE you must surely KNOW you are using an unsupported OS so you can't just demand we'd keep an history of legacy installers, which adds to our server bandwidth fees every month, JUST to cover for users of unsupported OS that don't do their backups.

So, again, if you really want to continue to use Windows 7 ( WHY ? You know very well you WILL end up with a newer OS, sooner or later, or you really think your hardware will last "forever" ? ), now that it seems we found out you can use the CURRENT version of the installer, with the 32 bit of the executable, I hope THIS TIME you'll do your backup so, if and when even the 32 bit version will eventually stop working, which we can't obviously know since we can't test it, you'll be at least able to use the version you DID a backup of.