For Steam Users looking to reinstall, but don’t want to pull down the (currently 153GB) full download again, here’s a good tip.
BEFORE deleting, uninstalling or even hitting the infamous Steam “Verify Integrity of Files” - copy the Packages folder of your current installation elsewhere. It should be close to 153GB assuming you have all the planes, scenery, landing challenges, etc. installed today.
Once Steam finishes redownloading the prerequisites, it will launch the MS Installer. When the installer asks you where to install FS, point it to where the copy of your Packages is.
For example, I have three physical drives, C, D and E.
I moved my Packages to E:\Steam\Microsoft Flight Simulator (I created the path before the reinstall).
I point the MS Installer to that, and voila, after a few moments it detects most of the files it would have normally downloaded are already present. It just needs to pull a few more not captured in your original Packages folder. Beats sitting there waiting and for those with data caps, spending more money pulling something down you already had.
This is how Launch Day reviewers were able to quickly distribute their press copies to their various PC configurations to get an idea of how the sim ran on different hardware tiers.
MS-Store and GamePass folks, this tip won’t work for you unfortunately, your installs are hidden behind an encrypted symbolic link arrangement.
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Does the verify integrity issue still occur on a default installation path. I mean, I thought that verifying would only clear the steam side of the launcher of the installation path, so if you just leave the path alone, it would point out back to the default folder and it should detect the one that we’ve already installed.
I just assumed these issues happen to people who redirect the MSFS installation file to another folder or another drive or something.
I don’t have this issue myself, though. Becaue if I want to reinstall MSFS. I reinstall the entire windows. Lol. Then after downloading the Steam files, I do verify integrity first to make sure everything checks out, then I run the app and install the MSFS to the default folder. And I keep it at that.
No, the Verify Integrity of Files will wipe the installation, regardless of path. I did a Verify between WU 2 and 3, and I didn’t need to specify anything iirc.
Casual, I need to do a clean Win 10 install, which will delete Steam MSFS-2020 on my C Drive. You suggest before re-installing, above, “I moved my Packages to E:\Steam\Microsoft Flight Simulator (I created the path before the reinstall).”
So, just to confirm, before I do the STEAM MSFS-2020 reinstall, will my complete path on the newly formatted SSD path be as you mention (“E:\Steam\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages”) --of course using the applicable-to-me drive letter and my Packages copy-- OR --should the path look like this: “E:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages” ?
(I am slightly fearful of messing this up, is why I ask.)
Thank you a lot.
Proximal Coala36
20 Aug 2024
Howdy!
It can be ANY path you want.
The packages files don’t care where it’s placed, as long as you can tell the MSFS Installer where it is.
I took my existing Packages folder, copied it to a new drive that the PC automatically named as E: when I added the SSD hard drive internally. See below. Note - C: is my dedicated Windows OS drive, nothing else lives there.
Literally, my installation for the Packages is E:\MSFS. Open that folder - you’ll see the two folders - Official and Community.
When the MSFS Installer screen with the infamous blue bar at the bottom loads and it asks where to install the sim, I click into that path box on the lower right and type in E:\MSFS. It takes a couple of seconds for the installer to recognize the Packages are already in there, and starts chugging away.
Also - try to keep it as high as possible in the folder tree. The deeper you put the Packages file - i.e., your example of “E:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages” - the more likely you will run into a “Too long a directory path/file name” error over time. Windows still has a limit to how deep a file can be in order to read it, and if it’s a file with a long name, it’s a double whammy.
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