I dont use those messenger programs because I find them annoying. You said that you have experience with computers so why is it so hard to understand that you download versions 12 and 17. Unzip v12 to your LFS folder first then unzip v17 to your LFS folder overwriting the dll file. Modify your LFS desktop shortcut to
C:\Games\LFS\LFS.exe /insim=29999
start the game with the shortcut and the gauges will work.