Firewall request F:4\flightsimulator.exe

Hi All,

Just new on MSFS 2020. Used it a couple times and last week when I started MSFS 2020 I got the message from windows firewall to allow F:4\flightsimulator.exe inbound and outbound connection.

MSFS is not installed on C drive and also not on F drive.

For now I have blocked this program as I don’t know if that’s the correct exe from MSFS 2020.

Installed MSFS 2020 from the store and have not yet installed any community addons. Version I am using is premium. Running Windows 10 Pro. Developer mode is off.

Full Virus scan didn’t reported anything.

Anybody seen this before?

Thanks

If you have not allowed that traffic, does the sim still work? Can you access the “live” features, such as live traffic, other players, the marketplace, and so on?

Yes, live traffic etc is working

I would also add that what you pasted may be a typo. The “4” looks out of place, as does the entire path. The EXE wouldn’t be sitting in the root of your F drive.

I know that it is the original exe from microsoft. The “F:4” is a kind of reference. I did a test and took ownership of the WindowsApps directory which first was owner of TrustedInstaller from Microsoft. Started MSFS 2020 and got the same message from the firewall for access but with another reference F:1\flightsimulator.exe.

Just to add… The first installation was on C drive. Then I moved the program to another drive via Setting - Apps - Select MSFS 2020 - Select move.

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Hi @dutchflight738,
You probably should not block this. The “strange” folder you are seeing is due to how xbox creates virtual drives - called VxD. You will see this in device manager when xbox (MSFS) is running. There may be 1 to 20+ of them.

Also, changing ownership on WindowsApps folder is not advisable. This has been known to cause some issues, especially when updating MSFS.

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Thanks for the update. Will change the ownership back to what it was. So in my understanding MSFS is also an XBOX app (don’t have experience with XBOX) who uses kind of drive links to my SSD.

Hi.
I also get sometimes a similar message from the windows firewall…
If I remember well the “number” was not always the same.
Nevertheless I did allow the access with a good confidence.
But I wonder why a MS application should be blocked by the MS firewall?

It’s sensible not going down the route of automatically trusting applications. If MS did that, it would likely be all over the Register that MS were configuring users firewalls for them.

That’s for the end user to do, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I don’t trust any application in basic. #zerotrust

Asobo should give us some guidance on this. I have this issue as well.

This is normal ! Because all game from Windows Store run on VirtualDrive

Reported this with a zendesk ticket and they didn’t know that this is a virtual drive reference :slight_smile: