Auto Installers MUST be outlawed

[Hagar]

Thanks Roger. Good luck with your system. I downloaded the Panel. The sound & my investigation will have to wait till tomorrow as I'm about ready for bed.

Foz. Type " gozilla spyware " in Google & see what shows up. http://www.safersite.com/PestInfo/db/g/gozilla.asp

[WebbPA]

It won't help much now that the cow is out of the barn but you should be using something like Total Uninstall

http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/proje ... jects.html

I wouldn't install anything without it.

[visitor]

I have a trick for the exe installers, I made a
dumbie file FS2002-1,With all the folders inside,
named just like FS2002, but empty,when I get
a exe installer, I rename the good FS to FS2002-2
and the dumbie to FS2002, then install and go see
whats where and if I can't get enough to do a install
myself I trash the stuff and rename the files and go
looking for a better plane!!!

[Moach]

i use the simplest of systems to install aircraft

i use power archiver to open the zip, and i take a look at the paths of the files. (when you hit extract all, they put themselves in folders following those paths)

take panel.cfg for example:

if the paths read "aircraft\super mega power plane\panel"

i just set it to extract in the fs2002 root folder because i know it's rigged to get itself into the aicraft folder and into it's own folder.

however, if it reads just "super mega power plane\panel"
i know i have to set it to the Aircraft folder

and if it reads "\panel"

it means you have to create that plane's folder inside the aircraft folder

there it is! the simplest way of doing things
hardly requires folder and files shuffling

how lazy am i?

[BFMF]

Roger, I'm glad i'm not the only one who feels this way!

I can't stand auto installers. Some will allow you to choose your own destination, which I'll always pick a temp folder somewhere. Some will NOT give you an option . For this I 'hide' my FS2002 folder, create a dummy fs2002 folder and place a copy of the fs2002.exe file in it, which has fooled every last one of 'em  ;D

[RollerBall]

Thanks for all the replies on this. Looks like the majority is certainly going in one direction.

OK, so there are ways of getting round these things (like dummy folders etc) but WHY SHOULD WE?

If the sim community made their feelings known we could kill these things stone dead.

I'm pretty sure they are used most of the time only because designers want to appear smart-arsed anyway - in MOST cases they are totally unnecessary. That was CERTAINLY true in the case of this dam Beverley which would have been one of the simplest installs ever if they hadn't been so bl**dy stoopid.

Sorry folks, I'm still so angry - my system is SO valuable to me I'll never put it in someone else's hands again. And that includes using using temp folders - they only contain the files you can SEE - you still don't know what else the exe has loaded. THAT'S how a virus works.

Roger

[BFMF]

Sorry folks, I'm still so angry - my system is SO valuable to me I'll never put it in someone else's hands again. And that includes using using temp folders - they only contain the files you can SEE - you still don't know what else the exe has loaded. THAT'S how a virus works.

There were a few aircraft released for FS2002 a couple years ago which used auto installers, and people were actually reporting viruses being installed by them

[Hagar]

I'm pretty sure they are used most of the time only because designers want to appear smart-arsed anyway -

I assure you this is not true in most cases. If you look back a few days I remember seeing a thread saying exactly the reverse & asking why all downloads are not configured as auto-install.

As promised I've tried the panel. I think this auto-install thing is a red herring. The aircraft flew well enough with the panel installed but when I exited FS2002 it refused to shut down properly. My system locked up & I had to reboot to fix it with the inevitable Scandisk.. This might have been a coincidence or a problem caused by the panel or gauges. I don't remeber the last time I had problems with FS2002 which is particularly stable in this respect.  I will download the sound & investigate further.

Sorry folks, I'm still so angry - my system is SO valuable to me I'll never put it in someone else's hands again. And that includes using using temp folders - they only contain the files you can SEE - you still don't know what else the exe has loaded. THAT'S how a virus works.

Roger. I appreciate your feelings & sympathise.
However, I would like to repeat that files configured with the ClickTeam installer are nothing more than fancy Self-Extracting zipfiles. (These also have the EXE file extension.) With the Uninstall option disabled (as in this case) they should not affect the registry or your system in any way. The worst that should happen is that you would extract the files to the wrong directory in which case the aircraft would not work in the sim.

[packercolinl]

Well I've read enough. I prefer to manually install and even if someone comes up with a fix that thing is for the bin. I can't afford that sort of stuff-up.

[vec2]

It look like I stirred an hornets nest when I place the Blackburn on the forum, I must admit I agree with the points taken, and hope the lads who did all the hard work look at replacing the plane, sound files, panels in the normal way so we can load them ourselves, I must admit that I have had trouble with the auto insallers before causing me to have to reload Flight Sim again. That is the last time I will load a plane using this system, and thanks to everybody for your opinions. Please replace  I love this plane

[RollerBall]

Well, just to try to tie things up a bit.

I thought that the problem was due to the panel - probably a gauge - so after having spent until 1.30am last night getting my system back I decided to give it a go again but using only my Connie panel this time.

Believe it or not, but on my normal test flight ( you've guessed - a takeoff and full IGS approach on Kai Tak 13 that takes about 25 minutes) it crashed my display driver again and I had to reinstall it (GeForce 3 Ti 200 using latest NVidia 44.03 drivers issued May 2003, DirectX 9)

So I flew the test again, no change same panel but in the Connie this time. NO PROBLEM.

IMHO THERE IS DEFINITELY A PROBLEM WITH THIS AIRCRAFT.

Interesting that even (!) Doug had a problem with FS2002 hanging on shutdown indicating that something probably affected his PC. Maybe the difference in our experiences was due to different O/S, different display, different DirectX, I don't know.

To come back to autoinstallers. Yes, in theory all they do is an autoextract BUT every install on each PC is different so a one-size-fits-all install is totally inappropriate in my view. Also, when as in this case there are problems I like to know what's gone onto my PC and where so I KNOW all the offending material has been removed when I take it off.

In my case what concerns me is that this problem is affecting my display drivers, which are system stuff so obviously this plane contains something a bit dangerous that extends beyond FS2002.

Do you need any more reasons why we should outlaw these things?

The guys who designed this plane have done themselves a great disservice by trying to be over-clever in my view. The model looks good and flies well and the sound is great.

But I've got too many questionmarks over it that are compounded by the autoinstall process.

It's now gonna be removed from my PC but quick and I only hope that the underlying problem is nothing to do with the original gauges that were replaced because those I have to keep.

[Hagar]

Roger. That would seem to take the panel out of the equation. I think you've suffered enough in trying to help someone out. I suggest you leave it now. If I can possibly trace this bug I will do so.

One thing I would like to point out. Much as I dislike them, I believe the auto-install is a separate issue & has nothing to do with this particular problem. This has to be a bug or conflict somewhere in the aircraft/panel/sound files themselves.

Meanwhile, I strongly advise people to be very careful with all downloads configured as self-installers/auto extractors. Not that they should cause a problem but in most cases they are the lazy way out & this was never the best way to install files.
Aircraft with panels & sound are not difficult to install. Take a few minutes to learn how to do it properly. If you have the slightest doubt, redirect the extract path to a Temp folder & install the stuff manually.

PS. For the same reason NEVER, NEVER, NEVER extract ordinary zipfiles direct to the sim.

[RollerBall]

Wise words as usual from Doug above, especially the last two paragraphs.

Just a suggestion if you hate autoinstallers - drop the designer(s) an email every time you come across one. Maybe they'd like to know......

Roger

[Hagar]

I only hope that the underlying problem is nothing to do with the original gauges that were replaced because those I have to keep.

I checked this carefully during my manual install. It does include a few gauges I already had installed but these had exactly the same creation dates. I opted not to overwrite them which is not possible if you use the auto-install. Here's the full gauge set if you wish to remove them. Please remember some of these might be required for other panels.

[EirePlane]

I am in trouble!
All my newer uploads to EirePlane are clickteam auto installers. If so many people hate them I will have to take them down, If I take them down then Newbies complain that they don't know how to install the aircraft. All my planes only carry the basic files and were originally self installed by myself then repainted and made into the .exe. Do you think that this is a problem.