EirePlane. Not everyone hates them. In fact just the opposite. Auto-installers are very popular in the CFS community. If you look back through this thread you will see that I've been posting files configured like this for many years. The latest project I'm involved with is configured to auto-install. http://www.simviation.com/lair/cfs2korea.htm
I configured the files myself as it's a huge responsibility. If anything goes wrong, I'm the one to blame. We opted for self-extracting zipfiles rather than the ClickTeam installer. These look a tad less professional but are easier & less bother to compile. They can also be unzipped just like an ordinary zipfile by using the right-click option. 

Before posting the files I personally tested the install in a duplicate install of CFS2. The other members of the team did the same along with our beta testers. The project took over 6 months to complete & this part took as much care as any other. It's so easy to miss something small but important.  As usual, when we went live with the site I was in agony until we started getting the first positive feedback.

I haven't checked out any of your files. Auto-install might suit your customers & you must decide what's best. If you are going to do it please be careful. Here's a few tips. I always configure auto-installers to extract to the root folder of the sim, never to individual subfolders like FS2002\Aircraft. This makes it easier to redirect the install path. I make it a rule never to overwrite default files. We also include a list of individual files if people wish to install it manually or remove it. Please uncheck the Uninstall option when using the ClickTeam installer. I haven't been brave enough to test it but I suspect this could cause problems. The files are scanned for viruses before being uploaded.

As I mentioned, aircraft alone are not difficult to install. In your case I would think a basic installation guide posted on your site would be the best way of doing it. Then there would be no need for the auto-installers.

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C'mon, read the thread. All the more experienced people have made their views quite clear. They don't like em.

Remember, you're only a newbie for a very short time before you get to know what you're doing and want to take control of things for yourself.

Most people who produce quality aircraft in volume don't use autoinstallers - POSKY, PA - same for individuals like Stone, Blaisdell, Dome - the list goes on.

I for one will never use one again  - don't care if it's Concorde or the Man in the bl**dy Moon (sorry for the more sensitive types amongst us). In future nothing goes on my PC that I do not personally install.

Period.

BTW my system which was perfectly stable up to now (after all it's my job) is now crashing from time to time duting normal use ie not just in FS. I'm afraid I do not think it's just coincidence.

I installed the Bev expecting a great plane. Perhaps it was because I'm ex 84 Sqdn (Bevs) I was a little too eager and installed all 3 parts. The result was at first the same system crash, most disappointing! I thought maybe it was due to low system memory requiring more than the 512Mb I have. However, I tried a complete cold re-boot and BOOM, up comes Norton with a virus report, 1 by 1 at 1 second intervals, a new file infected, boom, booom, boooooom just like that. At first it was the texture files, then a  2K2 system file. I immediately uninstalled FS 2K2 in it's entirety and ran Norton Full scan from the Norton site. Now I'm faced with replacing all the guage files, sounds and some of my favorite aircraft. I have most backed up. However, I'm waiting on someone here to find out what the real prob is. BTW I downloaded the Bev from the Sim Flight site, not here.

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Logjam. This throws a whole new complexion on it. All files posted at SimV are scanned for viruses with at least 2 anti-virus applications before being uploaded to the server. I would expect the same for any major FS site. On seeing this I immediately scanned the zipfiles & extracted files with Norton. As I expected, nothing showed up. (If there had been a virus I would have trusted Norton to pick this up at the time I downloaded & extracted the files.)

It might be an idea to mail Flightsim.com & the authors of the files with your suspicions. I think it's extremely unfortunate if poor Roger did download the aircraft from elsewhere & caught one of these damned viruses as a result. It's not as though he wanted the aircraft himself. He was doing as I would expect from him, trying to help someone out.

No, I d/loaded here but I don't think the problem is a virus. My system has an on-board virus checking system that is constantly updated which I've always found very reliable.

I think there is some kind of virus-like activity involved though as I've had too many system files damaged for it to be just coincidence. This morning I've reinstalled my whole XP Pro system, my Nvidia drivers and my mother board driver as I was stll getting disk-scans and lists of damaged/cross-linked files that were being truncated and goodness knows what.

Maybe this particular problem is specifically connected to XP or XP Pro and/or Nvidia drivers. Impossible to say just now.

I've also got a piece of software called Ad-Aware but that only runs when I start it, so there can't be a conflict there.

BTW Ad-Aware is free - what it does is scan your system for all those bits of spyware and stuff that get loaded onto your system without you knowing when you surf the net. When I first loaded it and did a scan it found NEARLY 500

(CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT).................

cookies and directory entries that were sending details about my surfing habits to marketing companies (it's called data mining). And don't forget these are all active programs that are running in the background and slowing down your system.

Ad-Aware lets you take em all off and if you run it every day you will find probably 5 or 6 each time if you have been on the Internet during the previous 24 hours.

Andrew - re Kai Tak. At the moment it's all on my hard disk. I have an NT network here and after this as of today I'll be uploading copies of all valuable stuff onto my server inc that and stuff like business accounts.

This has shaken me a bit - something so trivial but which could have been so damaging. It was one thing when my power supply blew a few months ago and took out my hard drive with EVERYTHING on it. But that was a 'natural' disaster - an 'act of God' if you like. This is something completely different.

Doug - yes that's the message you get when you create a flight starting with the plane. Trouble was that being a persistent son-of-a-***** I got round it by starting with another plane and then changing to the Beverley.

If I'd taken note of the warning and left it there maybe I would have avoided the problems I've had.

Another lesson eh - we never stop learning do we

Roger

No, the point that I'm making is that when I use an autoinstaller I'm giving over control of my PC to someone else. Specifically, I'm letting someone I don't know from Jack the Ripper run an exe file on MY PC in total trust, installing files that they haven't told me anything about to locations that I have no knowledge of.

Get the point? That's how viruses work.

So you think I'm being paranoid? Surely those nice flightsim guys would never do anything malicious to harm my PC?

Oh yeah - as a result of this Beverley debacle my system has suffered considerable damage. I've already as a precaution had to move all my more sensitive valuable data onto my NT server for safety. Sometime I'm gonna have to reinstall and reconfigure my whole XP system which now keeps crashing even during normal use - something I haven't ever experienced with XP before I installed this bl**dy aircraft.

And for what? Nothing. Installing an aircraft in FS isn't brain surgery - anyone can do it. Autoinstallers are totally unnecessary except for A VERY SMALL MINORITY of cases. Yeah, auto installers are fundamentally simple apps that only pop files in the right folders on your PC. Right?

Sorry, I believed that up to now - but now I don't trust the people who configure and use them - with very good reason.

My personal decision still stands. I'll never use another. I feel so strongly that if ALL installs became automatic I'd drop the hobby.

I don't believe that will happen - far from it. From the views of the majority of the people who've responded to this thread (and thanks a lot guys) it's actually pretty obvious that designers should seriously consider ceasing their use voluntarily as people obviously don't trust them and are now being forced unnecessarily into taking all sorts of precautions to get round them in order  to protect their systems, precautions that wouldn't be needed if designers just stuck to normal, simple Zip file extractions and allowed users to put the resulting folder/files where THEY want them on THEIR PCs.

BTW, none of my comments anywhere in this thread are or have been directed at anyone personally. I'm always ready to stick my neck out and anyone is quite at liberty to disagree with my views - that's not unusual and it's fine by me.

That's what forums are for!

Roger

Sorry, I should have mentioned. I'm on WinMe.
I'm still convinced there's nothing wrong with the auto-install. This is not the cause of the problem. I've scanned the individual files for viruses. The worst that could happen would be to extract the files to the wrong directories. This should not cause a problem except that the aircraft would not be installed correctly & therefore would not show up on the FS2002 menu. The aircraft works for me so the problem is somewhere in the panel or sound files. I've installed literally 100s of aircraft, maybe 1,000s, in all M$ sims over the last 4 years. This is probably the 3rd one I haven't been able to figure out. What puzzles me is that some people report it works fine for them.

PS. I installed all 3 parts of this aircraft both manually & using the auto-install with the same results. It would have been just the same if they had been configured as ordinary zipfiles.

PPS. I'm not trying to defend auto-installers. I've already made it quite clear that I dislike them & would not normally use them to install stuff for my own use. I'm just trying to track down the cause of this problem & get at the truth.

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