GSX Pro insists on installing to folder in unspecified drive

[jonnydeadly]

Hi

As the title states, upon initialising the FSDT Installer for the first time, after specifying the path for the ‘Addon Manager’ folder to be in E: Program Files, a clone folder is also installed in D: Program Files, yet this was unspecified. Moreover, the vast majority of the installation is actually stored in D, even though E was specified. The files on the E drive Addon Manager folder are bare, and those that are installed there seem to have been ‘cloned’ to the main (unspecified) directory in D: Program Files.

Why is this happening? It’s important to me as all my MSFS files are located in my E drive, which is an SSD. Drive ‘D’, on the other hand, is a hard disk, so the symbolic link in my Community folder in ‘E’ is constantly having to read from another (slower) drive. NVME is obviously superior in read rates to a SATA hard drive, so this is a big concern for me. All considered, I just want all my MSFS files on the same drive.

Any help regarding this would be appreciated, as the manual does not have any instruction regarding an issue such as this, and seems to assume the Addon Manager folder will always install where it is directed to. Thanks.

[jonnydeadly]

Does the FSDT Installer change anything on my computer (like the registrary or something) with a defined path to D when it should be E? If so, how do I go about finding and changing the path to the SSD directory? Just really stuck for answers as I’ve unlinked, relinked, uninstalled, reinstalled, deactivated, reactivated, and reinstalled and yet I’m still having this problem 🤔 I’ve also deleted the virtuali folder in Roaming when reinstalling. Cheers

[Beacon]

Hi,
yes, the FSDT installer does save the install location in the registry. I had the same issue some time ago and I resolved it by:
1. Fully uninstall the FSDT and manually remove the leftover folders.
2. Use CCleaner to scan the registry for leftover entries and remove all of them
3. Restart the PC so the registry changes take effect
4. Install again.

Hope it helps, good luck.

Kind regards

[jonnydeadly]

Thank you. I will try this.

[jonnydeadly]

Hi,
yes, the FSDT installer does save the install location in the registry. I had the same issue some time ago and I resolved it by:
1. Fully uninstall the FSDT and manually remove the leftover folders.
2. Use CCleaner to scan the registry for leftover entries and remove all of them
3. Restart the PC so the registry changes take effect
4. Install again.

Hope it helps, good luck.

Kind regards

I’ve used CCleaner and it seems to only clean the registry generally, without specific input. I’ve done that and restarted my PC and Addon Manager is still routing to D, having selected E. Any advice?

[jonnydeadly]

I’ve sorted it. For those that have trouble with this too, here is the method.

Okay I went into the registry via entering the command ‘regedit’ without quotes in the ‘run’ Windows application, which can be searched for by typing ‘run’ in the Windows tab. Select HKCURRENT_USERS, select Software, and delete fsdreamteam. There is a file in the registry there that will save your Addon Manager location and it cannot be edited without deleting it from the registry. Surely something the team should look into.

[virtuali]

There is a file in the registry there that will save your Addon Manager location and it cannot be edited without deleting it from the registry. Surely something the team should look into.

There's no need to do anything, the solution is way simpler: Uninstalling the FSDT Universal Installer in the standard way, that is from the "Program and Features" section of the Windows Control Panel, will clear the previously saved install location for the Addon Manager, letting you choose a new one on the next reinstall.

Your method of removing the whole fsdreamteam key from the registry is wrong, because if you really wanted to play with the registry, only the "root" key should have been removed to achieve what you wanted to do, which of course is not required, since the Uninstall removes just that. Removing the whole fsdreamteam folder would result wiping out all your activation keys, requiring a reactivation on the next reinstall, what's precisely why the Uninstaller correctly removes JUST the "root" key, leaving the activation intact, so a subsequent reinstall won't require reactivating the key.

[jonnydeadly]

I was not prompted to reactivate the product or input my product key after I deleted the folder from the registry. This is really strange, now that it has occurred to me. Also, surely using the ‘add or remove programs’ Windows feature would simply run unins.exe in Addon Manager, making the process identical. This means the virtuali folder in Roaming, the Addon Manager folder, and the fsdreamteam folder in the registry would still remain on the computer after uninstalling. Is there any way you could sort it so that when you run uninstall it will remove all these disc and registry folders? Or at least, all the disc folders and the registry file that stores the directory path for Addon Manager. As far as I know, you will always have to go into the registry to delete that specific file manually if you want to change the location of the Addon Manager folder.

[virtuali]

I was not prompted to reactivate the product or input my product key after I deleted the folder from the registry. This is really strange, now that it has occurred to me

It's possible it won't always happen, because the QLM licensing has cached your activation in another part of the registry, but it might happen, so not touching the key is safer.

. Also, surely using the ‘add or remove programs’ Windows feature would simply run unins.exe in Addon Manager, making the process identical.

Sure, this IS identical but, that's not what you said you did. You said you edited the registry, which was completely unnecessary.

This means the virtuali folder in Roaming, the Addon Manager folder, and the fsdreamteam folder in the registry would still remain on the computer after uninstalling. Is there any way you could sort it so that when you run uninstall it will remove all these disc and registry folders? Or at least, all the disc folders and the registry file that stores the directory path for Addon Manager.

NONE of these files in %APPDATA% or %PROGRAMDATA% have any effect on the Addon Manager location. The ONE and ONLY setting that controls it, is the "root" key of the fsdreamteam key, nothing else.

As far as I know, you will always have to go into the registry to delete that specific file manually if you want to change the location of the Addon Manager folder.

You don't. As I've said, since the one and only setting that controls the location of the Addon Manager is the "root" key of the fsdreamteam key, and that one IS removed by Uninstalling the FSDT Installer, there's nothing else to do manually other than just running the uninstaller.

And, of course, removing files in %APPDATA%, where all your custom settings are stored, your own custom airport profiles and your custom airplane profiles, would be very wrong, since you wouldn't have any way to restore them unless you made a backup, and not removing these files is standard Uninstaller practice, and if an Uninstaller allows it, it's usually very clearly labeled as a specific option for a "Clean Uninstall", which again was completely useless in your case, if your goal was JUST "move the Addon Manager".

[jonnydeadly]

I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I absolutely guarantee that when you run the uninstall executable that it will not modify the registry and delete the Addon Manager path, because that is exactly what I did. I uninstalled, and then deleted every fsdreamteam folder (at least all those I could find lol). This means anyone who wants to change the location of the Addon Manager folder will have to modify the registry manually. This is more than simply trivial for people such as myself who are moving from one drive to another.

Perhaps you could test this on your own machine by uninstalling the FSDT Installer and then trying to move the path of the Addon Manager folder when you are prompted on first setup. You should then experience what I detailed in the first post.

[virtuali]

I absolutely guarantee that when you run the uninstall executable that it will not modify the registry and delete the Addon Manager path, because that is exactly what I did.

I absolutely guarantee that when you run the uninstall executable IT WILL modify the registry and delete the Addon Manager path.

This, if you had a fairly recent version of the Universal Installer because, even if the actual installer would be updated by subsequent Live Updates, the Uninstaller won't be updated with it, it's still the one when you originally installed the FSDT Universal Installer for the first time and, if the version you installed back then was older, the Unistaller that came with it still didn't remove the registry key.

[jonnydeadly]

Mate, I really enjoy your product and everything but don’t you think it’s a bit unprofessional to start book burning and editing things out of both of our posts. When I write something, I don’t want someone coming along and removing what I wrote without good reason. Cheers

[virtuali]

don’t you think it’s a bit unprofessional to start book burning and editing things out of both of our posts.

I haven't removed anything of what you wrote.

I only fixed your quoting, because you quoted the whole post, which is usually considered bad netiquette (it makes the post harder to read for everybody ), so it's now more readable and properly formatted.

[S3rg1o]

I'm having the same problem too
I choose to install FSDT Universal Installer on my SSD NVMe drive, witch it does properly, but on the first start it installs addon manager files and GSX Pro files in my Windows drive witch is an SSD SATA, much slower then an NVMe.
How can I "force" install Addon Manager and GSX Pro on my NVMe drive?
Thanks