In MSFS 2024 (Steam edition) on Windows 10, the dev tools “virtual file system” tool cannot mount anything, despite ProjFS being installed and enabled. The “VFS Projector” keeps going “run this in PowerShell” no matter how many times “Refresh” is clicked.
Permanent
This has no STR. Either this happens, or it doesn’t.
Dev tools are turned on, ProjFS is installed and enabled.
I would recommend to request for assistance/report this issue on the main SDK forums located at https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/
I can, but why though? I’m not asking for SDK support (I’m not programming anything), I’m reporting a bug in the way MSFS talks to Windows?
(I posted here because there are loads of other dev tools questions here with the “dev-mode” tag)
There are that, but the folks that can act on/answer this do not use this forum, they have their own.
If you are interested in a solution, that would be the place to ask.
Instead, I’ll answer this myself, as it turns out that MSFS’s online instructions are incomplete, and forget to cover a universal Windows troubleshooting set of steps.
So: if, after installing the client-projfs via PowerShell, MSFS still says you need to run the instruction you just ran, even after pressing Refresh, it’s time to ask Windows whether or not the feature is actually installed and running correctly or not, by using the following service command in a (regular) command prompt (i.e. start → run “cmd”):
sc query prjflt
If this shows it’s not in a running state, or even throws an error, the feature is broken - in fact, the installer process for the feature is broken, and we need to fix it the same way we fix any other Windows feature: using DISM (the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool).
In a command prompt (not PowerShell) with admin rights (i.e. start → run “cmd”, with administrator privileges), run:
dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:Client-ProjFS
This will disable the client-projfs feature (properly) and will then almost certainly need a restart. After restarting, again in an elevated command prompt (not PowerShell), run a clean-up pass:
dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Followed by a health flag reset pass:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
We can now install client-projfs properly:
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Client-ProjFS /all
Once that’s done, do a hard reboot (i.e. not a “restart” but a shut down, and then when all your RGB lighting has turned off and the computer’s properly off, turn it back on). Once you’re back in Windows, running the service query should now show the projected file system service running, without any errors, and the virtual file system tool in MSFS should work the way it’s supposed to.