I have tried again with the same results.
That only leaves the antivirus interfering as the last possible explanation,
I am running 64bit windows 7 pro. Is there a couatl.exe that is made for 64bit?
You said that several times, we ALL run Windows 7 64 (or at least, most of us do), the problem IS NOT the Couatl.exe file being "wrong", a 64 bit OS is perfectly capable to run 32 bit apps. ALL OF FSX is 32 bit! There's nothing in FSX that is made for a 64 bit OS.
The real meaning of that message:
Check your computer's system information to see whether you need a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program
Is not really saying you are trying to run an executable made for 32 bits in a 64 bit OS, because this works normally, and it's how 99% of your installed software works now. Is saying that, the executable is not valid NEITHER for a 32 bit or a 64 bit, as if it was written for an entirely different CPU.
Since this is not obviously the case, because mostly everybody nowadays uses Couatl.exe, which is a standard 32 bit app just like any other FSX and any other FSX addon out there is (it's not even *possible* to write a 64 bit FSX addon ) under Windows 7 x64, the only possible explanation is that either your antivirus is STILL interfering without warning, like in this case:
http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=3913.msg40500#msg40500When I tried to run the COUATl program manually from the file it stated that I have the wrong version for my operating system which is Windows 7 64Bit
The same user replied after a while:
Lets cancel my last comment I found out by reading the last exception report on my antivirus that it was indeed couatl.exe which was being blocked. I made sure that Web threats was turned off and now everything is fine: couatl shows up and all the bldgs are there!!
OR, if you search Google for that message, there are literally *millions* of hits, and many of them suggests this can also be caused by a REAL virus instead.