I wished it a few years ago for 2020 and it didn’t go anywhere, but the option for a lite launcher would be perfect for me. A few drop down boxes similar to how XP does it (or at least did the last time I played it).
Simple. Straight to the point. No waiting for images to download, no multiple menu screens each having things to download, no saving and exiting after making changes that should be simple.
Free flight (loading), select aircraft (loading), configure (loading), select variant (loading), click livery (loading), select Livery (loads new plane image), click save and return (loading)…. I may be exaggerating / remembering the first week after launch but it’s still weirdly ridiculous.
@Neonf0x6338
FYI, there are many wishlist & bug reports that address the aspects of the UI that you commented on.
For example:
The plane selection menu is frustrating to use…There’s also no option to filter aircraft by category (e.g., airliner, turboprop, GA) or mark favorites for quick access. Bring back the FS2020 Aircraft Categories
Totally agreed! The UI is just bizarre. Agree with all you mention!
I’m especially fond of the scattering of capital letters — I think hotkeys or controller button references – they have on some screens. Not really sure what the thinking is behind them as they seem to come and go with different builds. Also, does not feel like they are implemented as a consistent part of the navigation. It is almost if they started to add them and stopped. Or, decided they were silly and forgot to remove all of them. They are silly – remove them please.
If memory serves, they did VERY little work on the UI once 2020 was launched so I fear we may be stuck with this situation until 2028 rolls in.
We need to combine all these votes so that this gets the developers’ ears. I am still astonished that internal testing didn’t get the developers as frustrated about the laggy menus, non-intuitive controls menu, and poor design of the aircraft selection screen (a regression from 2020!). @Neonf0x6338 Made a great list a few posts above that sums it up well.
The launch was terrible and there are problems to be solved for sure. Yet, they have created something pretty amazing as well. Longer term, I think the launch will be forgotten but the problem will be continuing to monetize what they have created. Must be expensive to keep this sucker running and at some point people will have purchased all the planes, airports, etc. they need.
Despite being raised repeatedly by the community, the UI scaling issue in Microsoft Flight Simulator remains unaddressed as other issues addressed in the initial post, significantly impacting the user experience—especially on PC platforms with high-resolution displays.
Several threads in the official forums clearly show ongoing user frustration and valid requests for improvement:
These aren’t isolated complaints. They represent a widespread concern that the current UI is not optimized for PC users and appears to be more tailored toward console usability—especially Xbox—at the cost of usability, efficiency, and cockpit interaction.
Key Issues:
Poor scalability on high-res monitors: Text and UI elements are either too small or cluttered, causing unnecessary eye strain and reducing accessibility.
In-flight menu intrusion: A bloated UI obstructs a large portion of the screen during flight, interfering with cockpit interactions and creating frustration during high workload phases.
Configuration UI inefficiencies: While some performance issues were resolved in SU3, the layout and design of configuration menus remain clunky and unintuitive. A dropdown-based or streamlined UI would be a smarter, more efficient approach.
Ignored user feedback: I personally submitted an official request in November and never received a response. This silence adds to the perception that community feedback is being dismissed or overlooked.
Why This Needs to Be Addressed Now:
The UI is not just about aesthetics—it’s a fundamental layer of interaction. When the UI becomes a barrier, it affects accessibility, immersion, and overall satisfaction.
This issue deserves to be formally acknowledged, logged, and prioritized. The community has been more than patient—what we need now is action.
Having switched from FS20 to FS24 exclusively last year I’ve now been using only the new UI for many months, and I still think it’s worse than the old one in more aspects than it is better. Even in parts where the old UI was poor and needed improving, the new one has often made it even worse.
The aircraft selection and configuration for free flight are worse in many ways. The new marketplace is worse too.
I feel they need to get a usability expert to review common usage patterns and fix it to make it more convenient.
If this is the case they have failed spectacularly as it’s clunky at best and nearly impossible at worst with an Xbox controller. I truly don’t believe this is the case at all, but many PC users choose to blame “making it for Xbox” on all of their sim woes when the real answer is simpler and sadder - it’s bad game/UI design.
I actually do believe that’s the case — and I say this from a software engineering background.
Honestly, I think the reason the UI scale option was removed (or never properly implemented) stems from the same design philosophy. They went for a unified interface across platforms, likely to reduce complexity and support effort. But that also meant locking the UI to fixed sizes that work “just okay” on a 4K TV, but terribly on a high-resolution PC monitor. Instead of implementing proper dynamic scaling, it seems they hardcoded most elements and gave us no flexibility. It’s not about performance or blaming Xbox — it’s simply poor design prioritization. By now, we’ve all come to understand just how rushed or short-sighted parts of MSFS2024’s development really were.
When you look at the list of bug fixes, it becomes clear how flawed the design phase must have been.
And here we are, doing alpha and beta testing… after release.
MSFS2024 is undoubtedly a major upgrade in several key areas, but you’d expect that after everything learned from MSFS2020, the new version would reflect a more mature and robust product — which is usually how software development should evolve.
They can’t decide whether it’s a pro-like sim or a console arcade sim. They end up with a curious, often awkward hybrid that is always incomplete and buggy and, like 2020 before it, will never be ‘complete’. The eternal curse of the never-ending roadmap is that it seeks to placate both demographics, alternately fixing some things that end up breaking or compromising others.
We mostly agree here, though I still think it’s tough to say Xbox was prioritized whatsoever when there are basic and important elements of the sim that have been broken or omitted on Xbox, and in some cases they’ve admitted that it was entirely due to oversight.
Agree 100%, and I’m an Xbox user. In 2020, I would check the Marketplace regularly to see if there was anything I might be interested in purchasing. It was usually the first thing I did upon launch.
In 2024, I mostly avoid it as it’s so frustrating to try to find anything. And the top 2/3 of the screen is mostly wasted space with just 3 items displayed, 2 of which are chopped off such that you can’t even see the entire thing without scrolling.
I really have to shake my head at some of the design choices that were made. And unless there is some clear advantage to doing so, why change something that the community already has years of experience using and no one was complaining about? Same for the controls schemes.
They didn’t need to change everything that they did – we knew it was a new product. There’s a lot of value in legacy knowledge and familiarity that got tossed out the window simply for the purpose of change. This has always been an issue with Microsoft. I’m still frustrated by some of the changes in Windows 11 UI that serve no purpose.
It’s a lose-lose situation really - if they had kept anything remotely the same they would be lambasted with “Why did I have to pay for this new version? All they did was recycle what they already had in 2020 - LAZY!”
The good news is that they did already decide. The bad news is that both guesses don’t make sense:
-It’s not a professional simulation, since there’s no such thing without the proper associated hardware. The software itself cannot, by definition, work as actual training but for some instruments and systems. If you can buy it on Steam, it was not made for pros;
-It’s not a “console arcade sim” for two very obvious reasons. The first is that “arcade” and “sim” are opposites; what you described is like calling water dry.
The second is that the simulator doesn’t even work using the Xbox controller, which for a console game is at best an amateurish mistake and at worst, a sign that the developers see Xbox as an afterthought. Which would no doubt please the guys who believe that using a PC makes them better and more important.
That’s barely an excuse for a BAD design like this. If they made improvements under the hood (and its not like there isn’t any graphical improvements) and kept or improved the elements which worked in 2020, many including me would have appreciated it, even after paying full price for it. Yes, some vocal minority would have screamed that nothing is new, but they are probably screaming about something else now.
The current situation related to UI feels like they had a vague idea about they wanted to introduce, but execution ended up being a horrendous one, and the result is nobody probably like it as much, including probably the most loyal users. I have seen some praise for different aspects of MSFS 2024 from different people, I also have some, but none of the praises were directed towards the UI.
For a bit of context about how bad the UI is compared to 2020, the 2020 ui was smooth and fluid, yes it had some limitations. But it wasn’t stuttery or hitchy. In 2024, even the intro video stutters, and then the UI is sometimes a slideshow, sometime it just pauses for a while, and aircraft selection menu is Something else. This is on a system with 9800x3d and rtx 4090, you cannot get much better with consumer hardware for flightsim.
With the latest su3 beta, the control binding ui starting to move towards a better in terms of functionality, but original ux issues still remain. Things which used to take 1 click in 2020 takes 3 clicks here, keyboard shortcuts when ch used to work in MSFS 2020, doesn’t work here if you use 2020 style keybinds.
Amen, brother. 2024 suffers from ‘red-haired stepchild syndrome’ compared to its PC-native sibling. Where is the love for the XBSX platform? It is notably absent, IMO. The devs seem markedly disinterested in the console version 2024; actual improvements to the platform version are in even less evidence.
They took away A.I. Pilot, for starters. (This links back to your comment about 2024 not working with a controller.) They designed an interface (GUI) wholly inappropriate for controller navigation (slow, cumbersome, a real chore). They barely ever mention the XBSX version in any of their posts or communications (I could not see a mention of XBSX in the recent SU2 dev post, for instance). It’s almost as if the XBSX version 2024 is an inconvenience - perhaps worthy of a brief mention here or there, but not something to be taken seriously.
I dunno. It seems we XBSX 2024 simmers deserve something better than abject indifference or worse. Asobo: Where is the love? We spent just as much as PC simmers to get a ticket into your world. What did we get in return?
Too many clicks same old Microsoft product design click 4 times to do one thing ugh…
Click to go to main menu click to go to desk top are you sure click click click no wonder we all have RSI
It’s a poor design click to see the plane click for the variant click for the livery click for the fuel click drag to load fuel click to load aircraft click to go back and click to go back click to fly click fly now click to get into the aircraft.
For goodness sake the UI is appalling someone help !!!
Believe me, not intending to excuse it - just pointing out that a vocal minority will be, well, vocal either way. I do think the current situation is a larger minority, but maybe that’s just because I’m part of it
