Simviation Forums

So I just upgraded another system component (thanks are to my wife, and her way of surprising me). I now have a Samsung Evo 250GB SSD. Now, I would like to say that reinstalling FSX was a bear after windows 7, and then putting all my aircraft and scenery back in, but it does rock in a fashion that no upgrade has ever rocked previously.
After finishing all that, I kept getting the ol fatal error and CTD that we all dread. I used to get them periodically, but after this fresh install, it was constant, and infuriating, as many know.
After much deliberation, I did google up a solution to this problem: UIAutomationcore.dll. A small file, to be placed right into FSX root directory.
It seems to work, and I can't make it crash. I'm flying the PMDG 777 on a long haul as I type this, and everything seems to be fine!
Question: How does this thing work? What does this file actually do? Does anybody really know? I haven't seen an explanation anywhere. It's great, and works like a charm, but WTH is it doing?

This is the best explanation I can find. It's all too technical for my little brain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_UI_Automation

Well I did read that wiki page with great vigor. After doing so, I must say, WTH?
Best I got was from the architecture schematic, and it may be that on servers, or anything else communicating with online stuff and things, that it becomes a messenger or something of a delivery/translator service. Maybe that's why it helps to have it. I bet that some newfangled interweb talky things need it to keep from having to yell at each other, or just not talking at all, technically speaking...
Highly technical a read that was. Anywho, I think I got the highlights, and it makes sense now. For all it may concern, here's the schematic. Maybe others will now see why it seems to solve so many problems. If the schematic doesn't make it clear, be sure to read my highly scientific explanation :

LoL Thanks for that schematic, it all becomes crystal clear. Not.


It's a while since I needed that fix but as I remember it sorted out crashes when the User Interface was used...that's all I knew or cared about but I admire your need to understand.

From what I've read on this, my understanding is as follows:

It is all about the mouse..

I quote from wiki: "Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) is an Application Programming Interface that allows one to access, identify, and manipulate UI elements of another application"

UI stands for "User Interface",

In layman's terms, UI really means the mouse, keyboard and any other hardware, and the UIAutomation .dll is what makes other programs (applications) work with WINDOWS, with respect to that program's
UI inputs, ie the mouse . (In our case, FSX)

There is already a UIAutomation.dll in the windows folder, and upon launching any program, FSX in our case, it looks for and "loads" that dll in order for the mouse to work.

The problem is that FSX is a relatively old program, and the newer versions of windows ships with a new updated dll, which is not compatible with the old FSX.
So when you launch your FSX, after a while it crashes....well, it is actually after a certain number of mouse clicks that FSX gets confused, and crashes.
(Specifically as I understand, mouse clicks in the virtual cockpit...)

What is required here is a UIAutomation.dll that FSX "understands", and the latest one that works properly is the dll that shipped with the old WINDOWS VISTA.
Now by placing the VISTA dll in the fsx root directory, FSX "looks" no further for the UI dll, and ignores the Windows one..and all is well.

Now I don't claim that this description is correct to the letter, but I hope it is a good summary of the problem.

Jan

Sprocket.
That description is totally correct

Thank you Mr Sprocket, but please leave the technical jargon to me. I think my explanation was sufficient.

That does make sense. I think that although FSX does have the "newer" ui.dll, it seems to not like (or even appreciate) it. They argue all the time, and crash.
Beware, there are 2 of these files with slightly different revision numbers. One can only assume one is "newer" than the other. Maybe one prefers XP, and the other Vista, or something to that effect. If one doesn't seem to fix the problem, it may behoove one to try the other. Just for simplicity, maybe I can post them. It's free, but to search for it can lead someone down a path of questionable sites, and no one needs the headache or worry of downloading garbage by mistake.

Maybe this is a question for an admin.
Would posting these 2 files be OK?

I have been experiencing FSX freezes from time to time and just assumed they were just events that one has to accept in computer game play. I have now downloaded the file in question and inserted it in my FSX root directory. Only time will tell if my install of FSX will behave better as it seemed to only freeze on long duration flights or when pausing to check or run other software.

Very interesting!

Nice explanations.

I seldom used the VC. The crashes always occurred for me when I clicked the menu bar but only after flying for a while.

Because fsx is an 32bit program the UIAutomationcore.dll is important for fsx to run on windows 7/8 it makes fsx run like a 32bit.

Hope this helps.