INSTALLATION TIPS ================= Full instructions are included in the manual which is available on the product page of our website: https://www.blackbirdsims.com Please ensure your system meets the requirements for your product. 1. Pre-Installation Tasks As with other flight simulator add-ons, pre-installation precautions should involve closing any open applications, as well as temporarily disabling any active antivirus software. Failure to temporarily disable antivirus software during download, extraction and installation will result in a non-functioning product and/or simulator. 2. Beginning Installation After purchase, this product may be supplied as a compressed (.zip) file. This compressed file contains an executable (.exe) file, which is the installer for the Blackbird Simulations product. Using the file compression utility of your choice (we recommend 7zip https://www.7-zip.org/), unzip this file to a location of your choosing. Once unzipped, you may begin installation by right clicking on the executable (.exe) file, then selecting "Run as administrator". The installer will run, showing an initial welcome screen. Left click on the "Next" button to continue. 3. Prerequisites Setup Wizard Depending on your product, the installer may run a process that checks for missing components that are required for the product to function. Clicking 'Next' when prompted and following any prompts within the component installers will ensure that these components are installed and correctly configured for use. 4. Product Setup Wizard After clicking 'Next' on the welcome screen, our installer may require the serial number you received at time of purchase. Entering this will then activate your aircraft. There have been some cases where a licence key has been rejected for a seemingly bizarre reason: a. Sometimes typing the key in has worked where copying and pasting didn't b. Occasionally, windows archive extractor corrupts the file - try using 7zip instead https://www.7-zip.org/download.html c. a punctuation symbol or accented character will cause a key rejection d. windows not being up-to-date can cause this as well as other issues e. most common of all, is not running the installer as admin Note: A working internet connection is required for product activation. The setup wizard will then determine the correct location for installation. Clicking 'Install' at the Ready to Install screen will proceed with the installation of the product. Depending on your product, you may see further installation screens for additional required software. At the prompts, click 'next' or 'OK' until all additional software has completed installation. 5. Post-Installation Tasks Please be sure to revert your antivirus program settings back to their previous state. It may be worthwhile to back-up or save a copy of the downloaded installer. Please be aware that as new updates are released, we do not continue to offer older versions for download due to support issues. Please also note that support is intended for the latest releases of our products only. 6. Uninstalling the product The Blackbird Simulations product must be uninstalled through the use of Control Panel > Programs and Features utility within the Windows operating system. Simply deleting files without using the uninstall methods above will cause issues later. Note: Prior to uninstalling the aircraft, please be sure to back up any customized files, flight plans, saved flights or custom liveries you have installed as they will be deleted in the uninstall process. =========== UPDATE TIPS =========== 1. If you are using an add-on linker you must insure that any symbolic links to the previous version have been removed. 2. Please insure you have removed the previous version prior to installing the new one using add/remove programs in Windows control panel. 3. If you have broken your install by removing MSFS and not uninstalling our product you may need to run this Microsoft tool to remove the broken install. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed-cca7d1b6-65a9-3d98-426b-e9f927e1eb4d Choose the option for uninstalling and choose the product from the list. 4. If you use an add-on linker you must follow the directions in the installer - i.e. extract the folder to your desktop or C:\ drive, then move it to your community folder.