Skip to content

Position and Hold

Realism through Simulation – A Flight Simulation Blog – Est. 2010

Menu
  • Flight
    • Flight Sim Articles
    • MSFS Addons
    • Scenery MSFS2020
    • MSFS Settings
    • Flight Sim Tutorials
    • Hardware
    • 2021 Around the World Adventure
    • Prepar3D Settings (v4.5)
    • Prepar3D Settings (v5.x)
    • Aircraft
    • Scenery P3Dv5
    • Older Flight Sim Articles
  • Information
    • About Jerry
    • Ask Me A Question
    • My Hardware
    • Add-on and Mods Directory
  • GBS Media & Social
    • GBS Discord
    • GBS Facebook
    • GBS Instagram
    • GBS Twitch
    • GBS Twitter
    • GBS YouTube
  • Other Sims
    • Train
    • Trucking
    • Farming
Menu

Prepar3D – To Update or Not To Update

Posted on April 20, 2019 by admin

As the title line reads, Prepar3D – To Update or Not To Update….Yes, Ladies, Gentlemen and Children of all ages…That is the question and the subject of this blog posting.  For the record, I recently updated to the latest and greatest version of Prepar3d version 4.5.  I’ve also taken the time to prepare an updated “How to update Prepar3D” tutorial document.  While there really was nothing wrong with the older document which I published in June 2018 (discussing updating from v4.2 to v4.3), I figured…Oh why not!  Anyway…

Not all Games are created equal

Generally speaking, with many of the other simulation based titles I enjoy playing…there’s usually never hesitation to apply a patch or game update.  For the record, and most of my regular readers will know that my gaming collection only consists of a few titles including Farming Simulator 19, American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2 and a few others.  My main gaming interest is in simulation based games.  All the titles I’ve just mentioned (and everything else for that matter) with exception to Prepar3d are Steam based games.  So the update process is automagical.  Being an IT Professional, I’m fairly diligent in keeping backups of the various “game specific” folders where things such as mods and profile game saves are stored.  While I do hear reports of some folks experiencing a game save malfunction during a patch update, I’ve never personally experienced it.  I’ve also successfully moved my original game saves from one machine to another as I did last summer when I built the GBS Beast Mark V.  Which by the way is still purring along just fine.  (knock on wood)

Back on Subject

I’ll be honest, while the Prepar3d (P3D) update process isn’t rocket science…I won’t lie to you and say that it doesn’t make me nervous.

In and of itself, the process to update P3D from version 4.4 to 4.5 is easy.  Actually it’s very easy as I’ve documented.  Follow these steps and the process is quick and easy.  However, transporting dynamite is also a straightforward process as well.  After all, just load it in a truck and drive down the highway.  What could possibly go wrong?  Exactly!!!!

So Many Moving Parts

Unlike all the other simulation games I mentioned before, 3rd party add-ons or mods for Prepar3d are as cantankerous as that load of dynamite.  Bad things…really, really bad things can go wrong anytime you start messing about with the foundation of the sim.  Especially when you are like me and have over 175 different add-ons which are installed to make my P3D experience “As Real As It Gets”.  If something goes horribly wrong with the update process, the side effects can mean I’m spending the next many, many, many hours rebuilding my PC and my Sim from scratch.  This fact would almost make any sane person steer so far clear of an update or change.  But who said we’re sane???

Of course, all these bad things can also occur each time we’re alerted to an upcoming Windows 10 update.  As President Ronald Reagan once said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.  Well…not sure how that stacks up against that dreaded message that states “Windows 10 has downloaded updates”.  These are the things nightmares are made of.  But here I go again….digressing.

It’s All Part of the Experience

For me, and since I do enjoy helping others…staying on the cutting (and sometimes bleeding) edge is all what it’s about.  Prepar3D version 4.5 was released on 9 April 2019, between work, the sudden death of my mom and many other factors…I opted to delay the process by about two weeks.  This delay did work to my advantage as it allowed me to spend some time updating many of the add-ons which required updates to even work with 4.5.  With all that done, I set aside some time to perform the update just as I described in the updated tutorial and I was back flying in no time.

Final Thoughts

I’ll begin my final thoughts with a question which perhaps you’ve been pondering.  Why do some people have so many terrible things go wrong when they update P3D?  If you drop into some of the Flight Sim Facebook groups or forums, you can spend the next (how ever many hours you want) reading sob story after sob story about how everything went sideways with the update and now they are left to having to do a full install again.  Why is this?

Again, being an IT Guy I have a just a little bit of experience with this question and unfortunately there’s not just one single answer.  The answer…most likely could be any number of reasons.  But let me further bang on and I’ll let you get back to your day.

If even before you make the decision to update P3D and you’re encountering the occasional crash to desktop (CTD), experiencing errors or have a really difficult time with overall performance…then these factors will play a really BIG role in whether or not your upgrade experience will be a positive one.

Just as important to the overall health of your current installation of Prepar3D, how’s Windows running?  Are you experiencing the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) events?  Do you experience issues running other Windows based applications?  When is the last time you physically cleaned out your PC?  See where I’m going with this?  If you’re having issues today, these issues should really be addressed before you pile on even more variables that can further cause problems.

My gaming machine is used for one purpose and one purpose only…to play games.  I don’t use it for anything else and while I built it just last summer, I’m fully aware that most likely sometime later this year or sometime in early 2020…I’ll need to do a complete rebuild of Windows and everything else just to keep it performing at 100%.  This process will have me out of commission for at a minimum of several days and most likely a full week.  But it’s a necessary process to having a stable gaming machine.

Well…that’s all I really wanted to say at this time.  Bottom line, I think the benefits of Prepar3d version 4.5 make it worth the effort and outweigh the risks.

Until next time…

Good luck with the update.

Jerry

Category: Flight Sim

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Flight Sim News

  • FSELITE
  • FSNews
  • Threshold

Flight Sim Blogroll

  • Darren’s Flight Sim Blog
  • Flight Simulation Association
  • iBlueYonder
  • MSFS Addons
  • On The Glideslope
  • PC Flight
  • Stormbirds
  • Twotonemurphy
  • X-Plane at Push-Point.net

Flight Sim Links

  • DCTRY
  • Deadstick Simulator
  • FS History
  • FS-Products
  • FSXLiveries.com
  • GSX Configs by 7X7Pilot
  • Hangar 226 Liveries
  • iniBuilds
  • sim bit world
  • sim-vector
  • SimPilotGroup
  • SimToolKitPro
  • The Flight Simulator Network
  • Tiger Flight Foundation
  • VATSIM
  • VATTASTIC
  • WebATIS

Flight Sim Products I Use

  • A Pilot’s Life
  • A2A Simulations
  • Active Sky 2016
  • Addit Pro
  • Aerosoft
  • AivlaSoft Electronic Flight Bag
  • Captain Sim
  • Carenado Aircraft
  • Drzewiecki Design
  • FeelThere
  • FLAi
  • Flight Replicas
  • Flight Sim Labs
  • Flightbeam Studios
  • FlightSim Commander
  • FlyTampa
  • FRAPS
  • FS2Crew
  • FSBuild
  • FSDreamTeam
  • FSFX Packages
  • FSimStudios
  • FSPassengers
  • FSUIPC
  • GoFlight
  • iFly B737NGX
  • Imaginesim
  • Just Flight
  • JustSim
  • LatinVFR
  • LevelD Simulations
  • Majestic Software
  • Milviz
  • Navigraph
  • ORBX Terrain
  • Plan-G
  • PMDG Simulations
  • Prepar3D
  • Professional Flight Planner X
  • Project OpenSky (POSKY)
  • QualityWings Simulations
  • Real Environment Extreme (REX)
  • Scenery Config Editor
  • ShareX Screen Capture and More
  • SimToolKitPro
  • SteveFX – DX10 Scenery Fixer
  • Super Traffic Board
  • TopCat
  • TripleHead2Go
  • UK2000 Extreme
  • VAT-Spy
  • VRInsight
  • World of AI

Archives

  • June 2025 (9)
  • May 2025 (2)
  • December 2024 (4)
  • November 2024 (4)
  • October 2024 (6)
  • September 2024 (4)
  • August 2024 (5)
  • July 2024 (5)
  • June 2024 (5)
  • May 2024 (8)
  • April 2024 (9)
  • March 2024 (2)
  • December 2023 (6)
  • November 2023 (1)
  • June 2023 (2)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (3)
  • January 2023 (3)
  • December 2022 (3)
  • November 2022 (4)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • August 2022 (5)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (8)
  • December 2020 (5)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • September 2020 (12)
  • August 2020 (7)
  • July 2020 (5)
  • June 2020 (4)
  • May 2020 (10)
  • April 2020 (6)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (3)
  • September 2019 (3)
  • August 2019 (6)
  • July 2019 (7)
  • June 2019 (10)
  • May 2019 (9)
  • April 2019 (7)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • September 2018 (17)
  • August 2018 (14)
  • July 2018 (13)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (8)
  • April 2018 (4)
  • March 2018 (3)
  • January 2018 (2)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (4)
  • June 2017 (10)
  • May 2017 (7)
  • April 2017 (1)
  • March 2017 (5)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • November 2016 (3)
  • October 2016 (25)
  • September 2016 (14)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (10)
  • April 2016 (22)
  • March 2016 (31)
  • February 2016 (19)
  • July 2015 (2)
  • June 2015 (12)
  • May 2015 (11)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (7)
  • January 2012 (1)
  • November 2011 (1)
  • September 2011 (2)
  • July 2011 (4)
  • June 2011 (10)
  • May 2011 (3)
  • April 2011 (1)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • January 2011 (2)
  • December 2010 (5)
  • November 2010 (5)
  • October 2010 (8)
  • September 2010 (9)
© 2025 Position and Hold | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme