Hi,

I have produced some scenery for CFS1 that I want to pass on to members of my squad, but to make their life easier I want to produce a .exe file that they can just action that will install the various files to the right directories, /scenery/texture etc I have used these from other peole and it makes life much easier....can anyone point me in the direction of an easy to use dowload that would achieve this?

Many Thanks

Ivor

Hi Hagar,

Many thanks for the info.

Ivor

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Hi Pads. A few comments if I may. I would never use auto-install myself & would not usually recommend them. However, these have become popular with the CFS community who seem to have far less problems with them than the FS community at large for some unknown reason. We use them to install our Fox Four campaigns, mainly as complex campaigns including 3rd party aircraft & scenery + all the other little bits & pieces are about the most difficult addons to install. If one file is missed, incorrectly installed or installed to the wrong location it's quite likely the campaign won't work at all or you will have problems of some sort. As I previously mentioned, I configure the files personally & always check the install out carefully on a fresh install of CFS2 on my own system before posting them. I also send them to trusted beta testers to do the same as a double-check. Hopefully nothing is left to chance.

After trying various methods we plumped for the WinZip self-extracting zipfiles. These are simplicity itself to create with a single right-click on any zipfile. They have the advantage of not creating registry entries. I always configure the files in a dummy CFS directory first & point the auto-extract path to the default location of CFS2. This can easily be changed if your CFS2 is in a different location. The files can also be extracted in the usual way (with the right-click WinZip options) for manual install by experienced users if they prefer. The way self-extractors work is similar to extracting an ordinary zipfile direct to CFS. I always warn people never to do this as (unlike the self-extractors) the way the files extract will depend on the utility, the method used to extract the files & even the version of WinZip. If the zipfiles were not carefully configured you could end up overwriting important default files. This is one of the main causes of problems experienced when installing addons to any M$ sim.

I was always a tad nervous of the ClickTeam Uninstall feature. I never plucked up the courage to try it but if the original install path was to to the CFS main directory I have visions of the whole thing being deleted if you used it to uninstall an aircraft. This might not be the case but without confirming it I would rather be safe than sorry. I always delete any ClickTeam Uninstal.exe files & manually remove the registry entries if I check out one of these things.

Providing the files were properly configured in the first place it's so easy to do manually that I can't see the point of using auto-install files for a single aircraft - or scenery area for that matter. It's probably much easier & quicker in an ordinary zipfile. IMHO

I've been doing this successfully for a long time & think I know the best way of doing it by now. Many well-known developers have asked me to configure their files for them over the years. I remember our very first CFS1 Korean package getting an award from PC Gamer magazine for the best configured freeware download of the month along with a big writeup. (Fortunately they didn't notice the gauges I'd left out. ) That was some years ago now but I had nightmares when it was first posted in case I'd made a stupid mistake. I still do whenever I post something new. Unfortunately many people configuring their own files have no idea of the best way to install them.

PS. Check out one of the Fox Four files yourself to see what I'm talking about. I've had no complaints about them.

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How did you guess? LOL

I'm not arrogant enough to think that mine is the only method. I have no right to tell others how they should do it. Everyone has their own preferences & must use the methods they find easiest. All I would ask (plead is a better description) is that anyone configuring files for others to use tests them carefully first. I've seen a few examples over the years that still give me nightmares when I think of them.

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I'm no spring chicken myself.
If the files in the download are configured in a dummy CFS or FS directory, using exactly the same folder structure as in the sim, no installation instructions should be necessary. Simply unzip the file & tranfer the files/folders from their subfolders in the download into their respective subfolders in the sim. No chance of messing anything up & couldn't be easier. Piece of cake.