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Program Files vs Program Files (x86) in Vista


REDDAIR

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Good Morning (At least here),

 

So I am tooling around to cure what ails my FSX and I happen to find a handful of FSX folders posted in "Program Files". The rest of the game itself is installed in Program Files (x86). I did learn in the past the 2 separate categories are 32/64 bit matters and I really do not want to know about them. My question is whether these handful of FSX files belong there or should they have been "Auto-installed" in Program Files (x86)? They appear as newer files (Auto installed?) which I did not install there. Might explain some problems with my FSX equipment lapses. I could copy them and paste into (x86), but hesitate to make matters worse by doing so. ? Thanks!!! Picture attached showing tree and those files inside "Program Files" (32 bit).

 

Redd PROGRAM FILES.jpg

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1-you do not mess with files in program files folders if you want your pc to keep working.

 

2-those files were probably placed there by you, if you accidentally installed in program files at some point.

May be you installed there by mistalke, then uninstalled, but not everything got removed. Then you installed again, to program files (x86)

 

3- you should not have installed in either of those folders. You should have created a separate folder. C:\fsx for example, and installed in there.

 

4- switching off UAC so you can edit things in those folders is a very bad idea.

 

5-same as 1- don't delete those files. don't move them either.

 

6-my program files folder (the 64 bit one) contains none of that.

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Kinda hard to answer your question without knowing what is in those folders.

 

I guess you could copy them over to your FSX folder and use caution if asked to overwrite any files.

 

I am interested in what is in the SimObjects folder.

 

Some planes come with scenery so it is possible that one addons added all of that.

 

Of course the opposite could be true, some scenery addons include AI, so it could all come from one scenery addon.

 

So you see, without knowing what is in those folders makes giving advice a bit challenging.

 

peace,

the Bean

WWOD---What Would Opa Do? Farewell, my freind (sp)

 

Never argue with idiots.

They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

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incidentally when I installed FSX on my desktop PC (Win 7), it chose to install itself into Prog Files (x86) and I dare not argue with it, so I let it go ahead and it runs fine from there.

Likewise, it chose to install itself in x86 on my Laptop (Win 8.1) and it runs fine from there too.

I know some people say you should create a separate folder for FSX and install it there, but like I say x86 works fine for me, so it must depend on what our systems prefer.

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Good Morning (At least here),

 

So I am tooling around to cure what ails my FSX and I happen to find a handful of FSX folders posted in "Program Files". The rest of the game itself is installed in Program Files (x86). I did learn in the past the 2 separate categories are 32/64 bit matters and I really do not want to know about them. My question is whether these handful of FSX files belong there or should they have been "Auto-installed" in Program Files (x86)? They appear as newer files (Auto installed?) which I did not install there. Might explain some problems with my FSX equipment lapses. I could copy them and paste into (x86), but hesitate to make matters worse by doing so. ? Thanks!!! Picture attached showing tree and those files inside "Program Files" (32 bit).

 

Redd [ATTACH=CONFIG]186873[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Reddair

 

Firstly let me explain the function of \Program Files and \Program Files (x86), and why there is so much confusion today. In the days of 32bit only operating systems up to Windows XP (yes there was a very buggy version of XP in 64bit but it never took off), there was only one \Program Files folder. All programs that were either installed as part of the operating system install, or addons such as Office suites, utilities, games etc, default installed into this folder, or as you put it auto-installed here, hence Program Files. And il88pp's no. 1 answer in his reply is not correct, along with his no. 3 4 and 5 response. If you don't know what you are doing then yes stay out of this folder and the Windows folder. The worst you can do is stop an app from working, not trash the whole O/S.

 

Then along came 64bit O/S's (Linux and Apple personal first along with many server O/S's) along with Windows following suit, since Vista, with a working 64bit system, onwards. And now we have confusing changes to this \Program Files and the addition of the \Program Files (x86). \Program Files has now become a 64bit folder for 64bit apps, and \Program Files (x86) has been created to store 32bit apps, being the replacement of the original \Program Files. Never understood why they did not leave \Program Files alone and create a \Program Files (x64), as I will explain why so later. They are also now a type of virtual set of folders with changed permissions for each, also explained later. So as I said ALL (99.9999% of them) Windows stuff will install in the \Program Files\ if 64bit apps, or old 32bit system (see the confusion), or \Program Files (x86) if 32bit apps on the 64bit O/S, by default if there is no human intervention.

 

As you will see, you fell victim possibly of these changes, and the addon using older installer tools, or developers who are not clued up to searching the registry with their installers, or do not look in the registry for the correct or custom installation of a users FSX, but use a hard coded default location as such C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, the old 32bit default install path. And like all of us, we click next, next, next without reading or noticing anything, and the addons and other stuff as you show in your attached picture, is found in the now 64bit \Program Files folder, reserved really for 64bit things. And FSX can now no longer find these installs, in fact it has no clue of them in the wrong location.

 

This is possibly what has happened in your, and most others case. From this post on, you need to look carefully at the point of you installing an add-on, and change it's path accordingly, the correct default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, notice - TO THE \Program Files (x86)\ folder now and future. What you can safely do right now with no ill to your current FSX install, is "cut" all of these folders out of the \Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ and "paste" them into the \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X. You will get a challenge of folders and possibly similiar files having the same name, you can safely say yes to overwrite all of them.

 

Once this is done you can delete the should be now empty entire \Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X folder out of \Program Files.

 

And now to explain il88pp's no.3 comment I queried earlier, there is nothing seriously wrong with putting the FSX sim in the default location, but it does affect certain installations of addons that have an issue with the permissions now invoked on these two folders especially with 64bit O/S's, their virtual path, and the above confusion of the folders. It is advisable to install into a folder off the root of C: as covered in his point 3. of C:\FSX, or even a second drive. But better still is create a C:\Games\ or C:\Simulators\ or D:\Games\ or D:\Simulators\ folder and keep the rest of the FSX folder structure intact, such as C:\Games\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Much better overall for addons. Then all you do is edit the default path of the installation program, by only changing the front part C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (x86) and leaving the rest alone.

 

This will fix your installation to be tidy again, and whatever else is lying in those folders in the pic will now be available in FSX the next time you start it up.

 

Regards Andrew Brown

Screwbottle

W10 Pro 1703 x64 / openSuSE LEAP 42.2, Core i7 4790K 4.5GHZ OC, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming5 mobo, Gigabyte AMD R9 280X 3GB GPU, Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB DDR3 1.6GHZ mem, CoolerMaster G750M 750W PSU, Zalman CNPS10X Shark Fin CPU Cooler

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Hi Reddair

.....

...

....

This will fix your installation to be tidy again, and whatever else is lying in those folders in the pic will now be available in FSX the next time you start it up.

 

Regards Andrew Brown

 

No.

Deleting stuff manually from any Programs File folder can (an most likely will) seriously screw things up.

The only reason to do it is to save a few Mb of space.

What is more important. A few Mb of space, or a working OS?

 

You don't know where the files came from, or if they are needed.

So use caution, and leave them where they are.

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Hi Reddair

 

....or developers who are not clued up to searching the registry with their installers or do not look in the registry for the correct or custom installation of FSX, but use a hard coded default location as such C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, the old 32bit default install path. And like all of us, we click next, next, next without reading or noticing anything, and the addons and other stuff as you show in your attached picture, is found in the now 64bit \Program Files folder, reserved really for 64bit things. And FSX can now no longer find these installs, in fact it has no clue of them in the wrong location.

 

This is possibly what has happened in your, and most others case. From this post on, you need to look carefully at the point of you installing an add-on, and change it's path accordingly, the correct default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, notice - TO THE \Program Files (x86)\ folder now and future. What you can safely do right now with no ill to your current FSX install, is "cut" all of these folders out of the \Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ and "paste" them into the \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X. You will get a challenge of folders having the same name, you can safely say yes to overwrite all of them.

 

Regards Andrew Brown

 

 

This is a plausible explanation, but....!

If it is what happened you need to use the uninstaller to remove the files.

Never just delete the files.

And don't just paste them somewhere else.

You could be causing serious registry issues.

And YES that WILL screw up your OS. It may even cause the computer not to Boot.

 

As you said Andrew. FSX doesn't even know about the files.

They do no harm. They just take up a little disk space.

Leave them alone.

You may cause serious problems otherwise.

 

Think about it. If you saw this on our own PC you wouldn't just "blindly delete them" either. You would investigate.

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There is little in the Program Files that would cause your system to not boot, if anything. The worst case is going to be a broken application. Now if you were talking about the Windows directory, yes, you don't want to mess with it.

 

As for the 32 vs 64 bit folders, Microsoft did make it more complicated for not much benefit. In this case, as has been suggested, the problem was likely an older installer for an add-on being hard coded to use the Program Files folder, rather than checking the registry.

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incidentally when I installed FSX on my desktop PC (Win 7), it chose to install itself into Prog Files (x86) and I dare not argue with it, so I let it go ahead and it runs fine from there.

Likewise, it chose to install itself in x86 on my Laptop (Win 8.1) and it runs fine from there too.

I know some people say you should create a separate folder for FSX and install it there, but like I say x86 works fine for me, so it must depend on what our systems prefer.

 

It depends a lot on the add-ons you use. Most freeware and some commercial add-ons are just fine going into the default location. Some commercial add-ons that need write access to the FSX directory are the ones that have problems. As it's hard to know which ones a user will want to use, if any, recommending to install FSX outside th default from the start is easier.

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This is a plausible explanation, but....!

If it is what happened you need to use the uninstaller to remove the files.

Never just delete the files.

And don't just paste them somewhere else.

You could be causing serious registry issues.

And YES that WILL screw up your OS. It may even cause the computer not to Boot.

 

As you said Andrew. FSX doesn't even know about the files.

They do no harm. They just take up a little disk space.

Leave them alone.

You may cause serious problems otherwise.

 

Think about it. If you saw this on our own PC you wouldn't just "blindly delete them" either. You would investigate.

 

il88pp, sorry absolute rubbish in your two latest posts, how long have you worked on PC's, I am 40 years experience, degrees from all over the world with Unix, Linux, Windows and my own business for the last three years. I build from home to professional cockpits as part of my IT business, costing anything from $3K to $300K.

 

I have had this happen to me on numerous occasions as I get like many, familiarity breeds contempt, and I don't check the path. And I have NEVER trashed my PC in cutting and pasting, in my case to my D: drive. You say uininstall, what if you cannot remember what you installed and where you installed it. As Stringbean covered, yes you can look in each of the folders, especially the \SimObjects one, as it will show either an aircraft, boat or rotorcraft that was installed, and that's all the research you need to do. YOU WILL NOT mess up your registry, you have no clue then if you say this of the structure of the registry and what it does. The folders shown is a clear indication of some scenery installed and flyable objects that's it, and possibly not even a registry entry created for them.

 

Stop giving unnecessary scare tactics advice simply because you don't know enough. I have given sound 40 year experience advice to Reddair, in responding to his post.

Screwbottle

W10 Pro 1703 x64 / openSuSE LEAP 42.2, Core i7 4790K 4.5GHZ OC, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming5 mobo, Gigabyte AMD R9 280X 3GB GPU, Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB DDR3 1.6GHZ mem, CoolerMaster G750M 750W PSU, Zalman CNPS10X Shark Fin CPU Cooler

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AI TRAFFIC BACK.jpgAI TRAFFIC BACK I.jpgOh boy, I did not expect a firestorm on this subject but thank all of you for your serious consideration on this subject. I have the opinion a few of my add-ons have issues because I messed up the install (Fuel Gauges/lights and an oddball thing or 2 not working). For one, much less anyone else who may read this, I consider it MANDATORY to have 2 monitors for this game. By having the 2nd one active one day, FSX sent all the Notepad screens there, such as when you try to open the text files for the add-ons. Given my limited experience overall with PCs, it has been much easier now for me to view FSX files once I discovered where FSX was opening those notes.

 

Back on the subject, after some thought, I figure I probably put those add-on files in Program Files by mistake. I did copy them over today to x86, but the game recognized on start-up there were dup files and so stated it in a pop-up. I decided to take the dups out and leave it alone seeing they must already be in x86. One of finer points of using computers is sooner or later you need a new one. Mine is getting to the sooner, so I less inclined to be overly protective of its fine qualities. A new one could be much better tuned for gaming, I look forward to it, but not the hassle. Going back a few lines, yes the hassle with 86 vs x86 was encountered when I got the current Vista powered beast. In fact, some of the odd ball TV games I had on the old one would not transfer because they were 32 bit. I thought then, what else can the industry throw at the consumer in the way of obsolescense.

 

My trouble usually starts when I delete files, so il88pp offers a great caution--just rename the file to disable it. I used .KANNED at the end of the line and date it. This way if I leave be, I know when I disabled it. With FSX, this is how I do it.

 

As of now, with the airport I have problems with, I disabled the add-ons and the default action came back. Good result. Now I am looking to tweak the ac. All of the info is great and I appreciate all your time in addressing this. !!! Pic--AI aircraft back in the picture, but I had to give up the add-on runway...

 

Redd

 

Redd

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REDDAIR,

I said nothing (in this thread) about renaming files.

 

I don't see why a new PC would be needed to fix something.

If there is an issue with fsx, ask about it. There may be an easy solution.

But a few folders somewhere that you don't recognise is not really an issue iself.

All they do is occupy some drive space.

 

 

Screwbottle,

I did not say he HAD to use the uninstaller. I said:

"FSX doesn't even know about the files.

They do no harm. They just take up a little disk space.

Leave them alone."

 

Deleting manually from the folders that are protected folders in the newer Windows versions can cause issues.

Programs that won't run, but that then also won't install anymore because the OS thinks they are still installed.

(= a registry issue)

And more.

 

Giving a blank check that you can safely go digging around in those folders is not good advice.

Screwbottle, you may know your way to wiggle out of such issues, because of 40 years as an IT expert.

But remember that most of the people reading this are users.

They don't know those tricks.

 

 

The advice "Don't mess around in program Files folders" is safe.

Much more safe then your saying: "delete whatever you want, don't listen to the warnings that pop up when you try to delete things.".

-Because with your advice, people start with deleting from ProgramFiles folder, and then later also go deleting things from "System32, C:\Windows, and such. -Are you going to fix their systems in that case? I don't really want to have to be the one telling them their only option is to reinstall Windows.

 

As I said:

FSX doesn't even know about these files in "C:\Program Files".

They do no harm. They just take up a little disk space.

Leave them alone.

It probably takes up no more then 400Mb anyway.

If he really really really wants to remove it the safe way is to look inside the folders. He can probably see what is in them, and safely uninstall it using the uninstaller or even "Add/Remove Programs". Much much safer.

 

il88pp.:)

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Man, you are both nonsensical, I cannot understand a word you both have posted above. I'm outa here, more like troll bait here.

 

Goodbye.

Screwbottle

W10 Pro 1703 x64 / openSuSE LEAP 42.2, Core i7 4790K 4.5GHZ OC, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming5 mobo, Gigabyte AMD R9 280X 3GB GPU, Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB DDR3 1.6GHZ mem, CoolerMaster G750M 750W PSU, Zalman CNPS10X Shark Fin CPU Cooler

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