I bought the ten disk Premium version of Flight Sim 2020.
I installed (about five hours!) and away I went, no problem.
I used the program for a couple of months including in VR with the Oculus 2.
Last week my computer crashed corrupting the Drive C SSD.
Turned out the motherboard was faulty so I replaced it and the CPU.
I tried to re-install Windows 10 from a Microsoft USB.
This wouldn’t work as the SSD was corrupted and I had to format the SSD.
I then re-installed the ten disk set, but now it says ‘This key has been used’
What can I do, I paid £87 odd of hard earned cash for the program?
I notice the 110 odd Gb is on my drive C but cannot be found to delete.
Can I install from my Microsoft store account where it says I own the product, if so will that over write the Flt Sim files put there by the disks - or will it further clog up my drive (it’s only half Tb)
Will the download still say ‘Key used’ ?
Any help much appreciated
I guess it depends. If you’re installing it to a different location, then it will take more space in your drive capacity. If you can find where you install the Disk version, you could point it to that same folder and hopefully, it would overwrite them.
This is a major limitation of Microsoft’s licensing policy.
Your key has been used in the previous 6 months, therefore, Microsoft are assuming you are installing to a second device (piracy or dual use) and this is against their policy.
The weakness comes in the form of hardware failure (had it myself with a failed mobo), Motherboards are the favourite benchmark MS use to determine whether the PC is ‘different’ to the one originally used for the installation. The hash it creates with a new mobo is significantly different and therefore assumes you have tried to install on another PC.
You can call Microsoft and see if they can reset the key but it is a battle and not much fun.
You cannot ordinarily predict a hardware failure such as this and MS really need to think about how they get around this scenario.
Its a similar situation with software that asks you to de-register it from the PC you are using if you want to install on another PC. Hardware failure again causes all sorts of issues because the software was never de-registered…
Since you’ve had it installed in the past, this key is now bound to your XBox account. So you can re-install from there / MS Store. So make sure you’re using the same account.
About the files; if you point the new install to the same directory I think it should just overwrite it, but I can’t be sure since I use the Steam version.
Hi everyone, thanks for suggestions.
I went to my Microsoft account where it said I owned the program, so I pressed install.
Seven hours later (! at average 30Mbs) it finished loading latest version and ran perfectly.
It didn’t ask where to install, just went ahead itself. I notice it must have installed over the ten disk install as the disc capacity hasn’t increased despite my fears.
What I have noticed is that it seems to have put the basic version on, not the Premium I paid for !?
Another surprise was that despite it installing on to a newly formatted disk it knew my custom joystick settings?
Anyway I’m much happier as I have put in a better processor and 32Gigs of ram.
Thanks again for suggestions.
You can download the premium content from the Marketplace from within the sim.
I think your controller profiles are stored in the cloud and attached to your XBox profile, that’s why they’re available.
Can you just clarify this for me.
I have just ordered a new PC to replace my old Dell PC that was struggling running MSFS .
I bought the Premium edition from the Microsoft Store.
Do I need to buy it again for the new PC or have to contact Microsoft even if I remove it from the old PC.?
No, you don’t need to worry about that.
The key has been linked to your XBox account. In your new windows installation just sign in on that same account, and once you load the Microsoft Store, you’ll see MSFS under your owned software, and can install it from there.
Thanks for that immediate reply..
On a similar topic what happens when the dvd used for the boxed version dies.
You could try to contact the support (Aerosoft) to get you a new DVD. I had to do it since my DVD 1&2 were not completely readable and they sent me replacements.
Probably smart to make and ISO file out of disc 1 as a backup.
I tried to make and ISO but it proved very difficult for a double dvd. I need to find some software to do it, luckily my dvd is ok at the moment.