I'm downloading Microsoft's official update for "Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight" (FS 9) as I type this message(27,429 KB download).The advantages of the update are listed on Microsoft's web site. Various code improvements and scenery additions are listed there. I'm looking forward to seeing several new bridge models in my home area that are on the LONG list on Microsoft's site.
Microsoft's site lists some strong reccomendations for implementing the update. Apparently some code files, including fs9.exe, are MODIFIED by the update. As large as the update is, it doesn't simply overwrite the original files. Microsoft indicates that if the update finds modified versions of these files, including those from third partys, in your installation folder the update will be aborted without implementing all of the improvements. Apparently any user or third party modifications of the impacted files will become unavailable until there are new versions of the modification based on Microsoft's updated code. Of course if you overwrite an updated file with a modification based on the original Microsoft file, a portion (if not the whole application) of the update will be disabled.
Reports on other sites indicate that if your Windows Explorer does NOT report your fs9.exe file version as 9.1.0.40901 the update was not fully implemented, despite Flight Simulator reporting version 9.1 in the About dialog.
Goto www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator for a link to the update.
Robert
Near KORF