As you may know from a couple other threads here, ROF actually had a small update a few days ago, the first in I-don't-know-how-long. So, until updating, a user can't launch ROF.
I discovered this yesterday, when for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long, I had a Sunday afternoon free and decided to fire the old sim up. For a long time I've been using ROF.exe to directly start it, rather than the Launcher, so I did not at first realize there had been an update. When the sim gave me an error when I tried to log in, I did some research and figured out that I needed to update.
That's when the real trouble started. I am unable to run the "settings.exe" file, which is the way to get to the updater. When I try to run it, I get an error message:
"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please
see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail."
After much googling, and starting a thread on the ROF forum (https://riseofflight.com/forum/topic/50787-cant-launch-or-update/) I've gathered that this error has something to do with a problem with Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. I've tried re-downloading and re-installing the ones that I had installed, but still no luck.
Also, in Event Viewer, I found the following error message occurs each time I try to start settings.exe:
"Activation context generation failed for C:\Rise of Flight\bin_game\release\Settings.exe". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.MFC,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.762" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis."
Maybe that gives a clue. Googling "Microsoft.VC80.MFC" gave results arcane enough to me that I'm afraid of messing up my system further by guessing at what to do with it.
I'm in the process of D/Ling the Free-to-play ROF from their website (at the 3rd-world pace of 416 kb/s, it's on target to take 6 hours!) to see if a fresh install will take care of the problem. I know it's a long shot but I wonder if any of you guys might have any additional insight into it.
S