Couatl / Addon etc. gone from FSX STeam

[fowler]

Reposting here : New to FSX steam and since two days or so after I noticed a short message when opening FSX Steam about an update I notice all the Module menu on top of the FSX screen has dispaapeared...  I had most of FSDT and FLight Beam airports installed and they were activated, also GSX 1 ?  IS this something that happens regularly with the online updating of FSX Steam ? Should I reinstall everything again ?  Thanks

[fowler]

I just bought GSX 2 as I had GSX 1 already, and installed it. The installer got stuck because my FSX.DLL file was corrupted in its format (-8 instead of ANSI) so as per the warning message advise I opened it, and saved it while making sure it was saved in ANSI format (without touching anything in the file) I hoped I could then continue the installation of GSX 2 but I had then to choose wether creating a new dll file (after spending a week installing addon's) or if keeping it GSX could not launch. I choose to keep it, and proceeded with GSX re-install from the beginning. This time the installer found another entry in the DLL file with balise not corresponding to base document... (Line 190 position 5) but I can't see anything wrong at this place (It is the bottom of the DLL file) I would appreciate some support from Virtuali.
I can send you the DLL for you to see it. Thinking now this corrupted DLL is maybe the reason I don't see the Couatl/GSX/Addon Manager menu on top of the FSX screen, beacuse they wont start due the FSX.DLL corrupted file. This is my theroy :-)

[fowler]

OK reading that FSX.DLL file again I noticed at the end there could have been a "Launch Addon" line too many.  I just deleted it and saved the file making sure it was in the ANSI format. DING DING when I started FSX I have quite many "OK" message about module to accept, and the GSX/Addon Manager/Couatl family was there with everything activated nice and all. I launched a Geneva flight and the airport is showing. So folks the lesson from this is be cautious about your FSX.DLL file. Some addon's will screw it and then it's a pain in the az.

[virtuali]

So folks the lesson from this is be cautious about your FSX.DLL file. Some addon's will screw it and then it's a pain in the az.

Yes, it's a known issue. Some 3rd party installers are defective, and change the encoding of the DLL.XML or EXE.XML files (there's no such things as an FSX.DLL file) without changing the header, which is a mistake.

That's why we have a clear message in our installer to detect this error, with a prompt to fix it, or start from scratch with a new file.