Flight Simulator 2020 installation woes

Brian D. Hart · Jan 17, 2022

In the interest of full disclosure:

1. I am not installing this as a game. It is for my son and some of his fellow aviation students to do serious flight training

2. Although I currently manage a couple hundred computers for my clients and have managed thousands of them over the last 25 years in myi role as sole IT consultant for about 15 small business, being intimately involved in every aspect of computer, network, application, and server management, including multi-user account management and file security, I am not a gamer. So I was entirely unprepared for these complications.

I have installed Flight Sim 2020 Premium from the DVD set on Windows 10, after much banging of my head against the wall. I originally bought the XBox Windows 10-compatible download version from Amazon. That not only made me create an XBox ID, something I do not want, but I then found that it was going to take a week to install it because I live out in the boondocks and have only 5 MB/s DSL internet service. I am quite certain it would consume all my bandwidth for the approximately 100 hours this would have taken, and there was no way I was going to take a week off work at my home/office to let it to this because I would not be able to get any work done.

But on top of this, it had required me to go through the XBox installer and automatically installed the product to my own AppData folder. Well, that is a terrible idea, since that would preclude running the program as any other computer except me, the sole computer administrator. I cannot think of any circumstance where it would be reasonable to share any admin folder with non-admin users. The entire purpose of this installation is for my son and other student pilots to run it under their own local computer logon accounts. So rather than haul my computer somewhere else with better bandwidth to do the download, I ordered the DVD version instead. Amazon did not carry the Premium version, so I got it elsewhere. Since Amazon does not do returns for electronic licensing, the original XBox version was a $130 to Microsoft/XBox for a license that I cannot use.

So I first tried installing the DVD to a custom folder here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. That just generated "cannot find file" errors, and although it gave me no clue as to the reason, I made an educated guess that it may have something to do with path length and, against all other logic and my tightly-controlled file system structure that requires all applications to go into Program Files, installed to C:\FS2020. That got it done. I preemptively granted the Users group write access to that folder to ensure that other users can run the application.

So then I ran it for the first time and found that it needed to download an additional ~150 GB. Well, that was back to the first problem, so I hauled my computer down to an office where I could use a 100 MB internet service to get it done. But then it wanted to put the content into my AppData folder, and I had to redirect it from my AppData folder to C:\FS2020.

That is all done, but it leaves me with three questions:

1. When I did the download for the additional content and specified C:\FS2020, it created an alternate structure. From the original installation, I have aircraft/airport folders here:

C:\FS2020\Official\OneStore

But the update put all of its content here:

C:\FS2020\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore

Not only that, but it downloaded a copy of everything I already had in the original folder and then added to it (perhaps the additional Premium content). For example, there are these folders in both places, among many others:

asobo-aircraft-208b-grand-caravan-ex

asobo-aircraft-a320-neo

And many others. The longer path also has additional ones such as this:

asobo-aircraft-103solo-smallwheels-livery-xbox-aviators"

I am still wondering why I had to waste my time with the whole DVD installation when it was just going to re-download it all anyway, but the question is this: how do I consolidate this into one location so I am not taking up almost twice the required disc space? Can I just move the additional folders from the long path to the original/short path, or do the same-name folders actually have different content? There are 93 GB in the original folder and 131 GB in the longer folder.

2. I installed this while logged on as admin, which is obviously required for installations intended to be used under other computer accounts. I got it activated and ran it. But I will never use it; instead, it needs to be run under the student non-admin account. I can grudgingly work with the requirement for logging into a Live account to run the app, but when I switched to the family's account and tried to run FS2020, the cursor just starts flashing and will not stop. It gives no clue as to whether this is a file security problem, some registry entry it cannot read/write, that it needs to be signed into MS Live before attempting to run (is it too dumb to ask for that upon startup?) or something else.

How do I now get this to run for the actual user, that is, under a non-admin local computer account different from the one I used to install FS2020? There is no way I am going to have other users logging onto my local Windows account just to run FS2020. We do not use Microsoft live acocunts for compute rlogon--only This whole thing has so far cost me at least $1000 in lost work time trying to get it installed and working.

:)

Brian D. Hart

long gone are the days of proper software where you can have multiple installations and have multiple users using it and installing where you want, even the OS is a service now, FS2020 is all aspects a sim game, commercial only with one licence for one individual.

having a microsoft account with the xbox account setup is required too.

I am beginning to see this. I just wish I had known this two weeks ago so I did not waste all this time on a product that apparently--if it were possible to be configured in my properly secured but very standard computer environment, might actually be useful. As it stands, I am out $260 with nothing to show for it but my $2000 lost revenue with all the time I have spent trying to get it to work instead of completing projects for my clients.

But there is nothing in the license that says this cannot be used by more than one person on the same computer; it just seems to be working under the assumption that everyone is a gamer, and I do not have time for games; this is supposed to be a serious flight training tool. But with all that lost revenue, I could be halfway to getting my glider pilot's license for real just in the $$ I have lost trying to get this to work.

And I do have a Microsoft account and did the XBox account setup. But there was no prompt to connect to either of those when I switched from my local admin account to my son's non-admin account; it just silently fails to work.

SwordofWhedon

1- Just for the major updates, which happen approximately monthly. January’s was just the other day.

2- The way you were talking you needed a bunch of stations, if I misread I apologize.

3- I have preconfigured installation images I can deploy over the network, like Norton Ghost used to be. For example I build Plex boxes for people, and I have a preconfigured turnkey image of Windows with everything installed, I. Image the drive and register the software with their new keys

4- What I’m saying is that you are purchasing a consumer entertainment product, not business software, it’s a very different animal. The game on the DVDs was always intended to receive a massive update on launch. It has thousands of corrections, I myself spotted that the San Diego Maritime Museum’s ship masts had been parsed as trees

It’s just. Avery different animal than you’re used to dealing with.

My apologies for misunderstanding your needs

The official flight simulator forums are here

https://forums.flightsimulator.com

Kathy A.

Thanks for swift reply, Brian D. Hart.

So the question is very simple: how do I run FS2020 after logging off my computer administrator account and logging on using my son's non-administrator computer account?

You may try these troubleshooting and let us know how it goes.

In your son's non-administrator account, you may try to run the game as an administrator.
You may try to disable any antivirus, PC Optimizer, VPN and the like. Try to run the game.
Try to run the troubleshooter: Go to PC Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot, and then from the list select Windows Store apps > Run the troubleshooter.
Repair the game by Go to PC Settings > Apps > Apps & features in Settings. Select the app you want to fix. Select the Advanced options link under the name of the game (some apps don't have this option). On the page that opens, select Repair if it's available. If it isn't available or doesn't fix the problem, select Reset.
If the two accounts you mentioned are on the same computer not through networking, what I can suggest is to uninstall and re-install the game on your son's non-administrator account. Kindly check if same issue happen and see if you will encounter any other errors. However, there will be possibility that the game will save few or some system files on AppData Folder.

We look forward for your response, please post a screenshot of any error you will be receiving. Please conceal personal information.

Kind regards,

Kathy A.

Hi Brian D. Hart,

Welcome to Xbox Community Forum. Thank you for sharing your concern with us today and we hope that all is well.

We understand that you are trying to install Flight Simulator 2020 in your Home PC and would like to prevent the game installation from accessing the AppData folder. Let us check on this together and sort this out in timely manner.

To answer your question, please refer mainly to this support article: All versions - Can I choose or change the installation path? (Install on the D: drive instead of the C: drive for instance) – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com).

There is a support article will answer your first question, please check - All versions - Why am I redownloading all the packages after each update? – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com). If it is not the update of the game, it is downloading the missing packages.
Just to make sure we are on the same page, do you want to prevent the game to be included on AppData Folder?

If yes, there will be possibilities that the game will do that if it will access Xbox app. However, to make sure you will be answered on this part of your query we would suggest that you will create a thread here on Microsoft Tech Community so you will be answered by the IT and Windows experts.

There might be missing packages of the installation that is why you encounter an issue while launching the game on local user.
A suggestion for you to prevent the game from accessing App Data:
- Since, you are an admin to the Home PC and your son is a local user, you may also install the game on Drive D (if applicable). However, transfer/move of the game folder to Drive C is not advisable for this might result to a licensing conflict.

Please, do not forget to check here for known issues that might be related to your concern.

Xbox Status

Known Issues for Game Launches

We look forward to your response. Kindly let us know, if there is any misunderstanding or clarifications of our description by sending us a reply.

Sincerely,

Xbox Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

Brian D. Hart

1- Just for the major updates, which happen approximately monthly. January’s was just the other day.

2- The way you were talking you needed a bunch of stations, if I misread I apologize.

3- I have preconfigured installation images I can deploy over the network, like Norton Ghost used to be. For example I build Plex boxes for people, and I have a preconfigured turnkey image of Windows with everything installed, I. Image the drive and register the software with their new keys

4- What I’m saying is that you are purchasing a consumer entertainment product, not business software, it’s a very different animal. The game on the DVDs was always intended to receive a massive update on launch. It has thousands of corrections, I myself spotted that the San Diego Maritime Museum’s ship masts had been parsed as trees It’s just. Avery different animal than you’re used to dealing with.

My apologies for misunderstanding your needs

The official flight simulator forums are here

https://forums.flightsimulator.com

Thanks for the clarification. I kind of came to terms with having to take the workstation elsewhere for the first major update, assuming it would be a one-time deal. But it sounds to me like folks like me that live out where fresh air still exists but internet is slow might just be out of luck with FS2020. I was under the impression that I could just download the updates, then tell it to quit checking, since I do not need any updates; I could work with it the way it is now. But if it simply cannot be configured to avoid new updates, it is useless for us. It is a faulty assumption on Microsoft's part that the entire world lives in a metropolitan area with virtually unlimited internet bandwidth, and I did not see this coming when I read all the glowing reviews and product descriptions of FS2020. Maybe it was in the small lawyer print somewhere

I am trying to wade through the first time "can't post a question until you do all these things" over at the forum. Thanks for pointing me there.

Flight Simulator 2020 installation woes