I have no Addon Manager in my Addons Menu

[fltsimguy]

Purchased and installed three Hawaiian products.   I loaded up FSX.  I have no listing for Addon Manager in my Addons menu.  I have several other payware products listed as usual but no Addon Manager.

I d/l the stand alone addon manager.  I ran that and in theory installed it.  I loaded up FSX and I still have no addon manager in my menu.

I am unable to register any of the products until I get the addon manager to work/show.

What is wrong?  What do I do?  I read the manual.  According to what I read there should be an entry in the addons for the addon manager and there is not.  Please help

I must say that I find this process of downloading and registering very convoluted and difficult to understand.

[fltsimguy]

I see I similar problem posted in the general discussion.  I tried to follow the exact instructions listed in that response.  I still have no addon manager showing in my menu.

Hugely frustrating issue.  I need help or I have wasted my money because I can not get these airports to install.

[virtuali]

I replied to you via email.

[fltsimguy]

yes I got the email thanks.

I tried something very similar yesterday but it didn' t work.

I will try exactly as you laid it out in the email and see if that works.

[fltsimguy]

DID NOT WORK! 

Here is what you provided me:  and my actions

The process or downloading can't be simpler, you just click on a link.

The process of registering can't be simpler either, you just open the Addon Manager, select the product, click the "Register Serial" button, insert the Serial and it works, just like any other software out there.

The issue is not the process is difficult, the issue is that something on your system, which we'll surely find out, is preventing it to run in the first place. I uninstalled a trail version of Converter X before I started all this stuff yesterday

First, I assume you installed the sceneries without any error message ? I installed all three sceneries

Have you been ASKED permission to run the Addon Manager and the Couatl engine when you first launched FSX for the first time after the installation ?  No I got no questions



Try this first, AFTER you have installed the sceneries.  I reinstalled all three Hawaiian sceneries

- Download and install the current version of the Stand-Alone Addon Manager I d/l ed and installed Stand Alone Addon Manager

- When it's finished, go to the Windows Control Panel, select the "Add/Remove Programs" section and look for the "Virtuali Addon Manager X" entry, double click on it, and choose to remove it. I uninstalled the addon manager

- When uninstalling reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Addon Manager ?" and reply YES to the question "Do you want to remove the Couatl engine?". I answered Yes to both questions


These steps are normally not necessary, but I want to be sure we start from a common starting point. Just be sure you start doing this AFTER all the sceneries have been already installed, regardless if they work or not. I did exactly as you are recommending


- Reboot Windows. Please do it, it might be important. I rebooted WINDOWS

- Turn your Antivirus entirely OFF I turned off antivirus and firewall

- Reinstall the Stand-Alone Addon Manager . Don't launch FSX yet. I reinstalled the stand alone addon manager and I did not launch FSX

- Configure the Antivirus to exclude the following files from scanning: I configured my Norton Antivirus, I had to turn it on to get access to the tabs as they were greyed out and unaccessible, I added both files below to (a) allow access (b) listed in my exclusions from scanning options

YourFSXFolder\bglmanx.dll
YourFSXFolder\fsdreamteam\Couatl\Couatl.exe

YourFSXFolder it's usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, if you installed it in the default folder, otherwise it might be different, if you chose to install FSX in a different folder than the default one.  my FSX is located on D drive and registered fully in windows registry, I note that the modules and airports are located under the fsdreamteam folder as they should be

- Turn the antivirus back on, and launch FSX I turned on my antivirus and firewall and launched FSX

- If you are asked permission to run the Addon Manager and the Couatl engine reply YES to all questions. I was not asked any questions about permissions, the sim went right into the free flight mod with my default flight ready to be selected {it appears that the modules are not running}

- Check you have Both the "Addon Manager" and the "Couatl powered product" menus under the "Addons" menu. there is a FSUIPC, FS Discovery, and Instant Scenery listed in my Add-ons listing BUT NO ADDON MANAGER NOR COUATL POWERED PRODUCT

Please, try to note if you are being asked permission to run both modules when FSX starts for the first time.NO PERMISSIONS ASKED

The required modules are not running properly obviously.

[virtuali]

Please, try to note if you are being asked permission to run both modules when FSX starts for the first time.NO PERMISSIONS ASKED

That's the main problem.

The required modules are not running properly obviously.

A more correct description of the issue is, something in your system is preventing them to even TRY to start. Which is why you are not being asked permission to run them.

This is usually caused by:

- The antivirus, which is STILL blocking them, even if you excluded them

- You might inadvertently un-trusted "Virtuali" on your system so, anything signed by us will be automatically refused to run.

To verify this, you can go to the Control Panel, under "Internet Options", look for the "Content" tab, there should be an "Authors" button, that will list the software authors that you trusted, and another tab with untrusted authors. If you see "Virtuali s.a.s", remove it from both tabs (especially if it's under untrusted)

[fltsimguy]

Good suggestion, I would never have thought of this.

The good news is that I found an untrusted module, I removed it.  Loaded up FSX and I now have the two addons menu items.  I plugged in the registration info and activated.  Loaded up Kahului and I have an airport.  Haven't checked the other areas yet.

The bad news is:  I do not think the airport scenery is showing correctly.  I will make a separate post on these issues nad check other posts before doing so.

Close up to the scenery there are still some black square shadow boxes and no objects, I suspect that there should be buildings in these spots.

As I pull away from the airport the cars and other objects stop showing abruptly, in not too far a distance from the airport and I am left with a whole lot of black shadow boxes, looks terrible.

I have yet to check other posts for these problems.  I have my scenery settings to very dense.

I would recommend that you folks put this thread or a summary of all the things noted in this thread as a pinned topic in case this issue arises again for others.  My computer is set up perfectly for all other addons and simming.  While I respect the need for security issues, this system is too fraught with issues to be helpful.  Very frustrating, consumes vast amounts of my time and your time.

[virtuali]

My computer is set up perfectly for all other addons and simming.  While I respect the need for security issues, this system is too fraught with issues to be helpful.  Very frustrating, consumes vast amounts of my time and your time.

I'm sorry, but this issue of yours couldn't be prevented in any way.

ANY Windows executable has to be approved and you, the user, have the chance to block either that specific executable, or the *whole* publisher, nobody except you can do this, and nobody except you can Undo this.

It can be made by mistake, in order to Untrust a publisher, you need to click the small arrows when the Window trust request comes out, then select to block the publisher entirely.

From now on, no software digitally signed by us will ever run on your system.  And of course, it can't be fixed automatically by an installer, if it were possible to do this automatically, actual malware could do it, defying the purpose of the trust system entirely.

Which is why, only you (manually) can block a publisher, and only you (manually) can un-block, you just have to remember you *did* that...

So, in your specific case, what caused the problem wasn't "our" security system, because it could happen to any other Windows software, since any other Windows software (at least those digitally signed) can have its publisher blocked.

Which is quite hironical because, we have to pay an yearly fee to keep being able to sign executable, so users could TRUST they are coming from us, but in fact, by digitally sign a module, we give the user the ability to Un-trust us entirely.

If we were cheap, and chose NOT to digitally sign the executables, it would be enough to simply distribute a new version if the old one was untrusted on a system, but nobody could be able to un-trust us entirely, because that's only possible with signed executables...

You don't read anything any of these problems with the FS9 version of the Addon Manager, don't you ? The Addon Manager it's the same in FS9, but FS9 doesn't use ANY trust mechanism at all, and doesn't check to authorize modules in any way...

[fltsimguy]

Thanks for the info on certificates etc.  I really appreciate you prompt and patient work to get me up and running.

As I mentioned I don't believe the scenery is showing correctly so I would appreciate some help with that.  I will read some more in the manual and other posts and if necessary get back to you folks in another post.

cheers
Bryan