Installing MSFS 2024 other then C drive

As title suggests, Is is possible to install MSFS 2024 onto different drive other then C drive? The reason why I ask is because I am hearing plenty of people saying that 2024 installs bulk load of files in C drive.

Basically the space on my C drive is very limited and I’d like to leave the remaining space for future windows update and other essential things. In contrast I have got few more additional drives with plenty of space in it, in fact I have just ordered 2TB SSD off amazon which should be arriving just in time over weekend. As a result I should have plenty space on other drives.

While you can do the install to “D” or “M” or whatever, the application still finds a way to load plenty of files on the C Drive. I for example did the “D” Drive Install and have files under c:\user%userprofile% or c:\programdata

What I can suggest is to free up space on your “C” Drive you can leverage symbolic links and your “D” Drive.

Example

Lets say on your “C” Drive you have a folder with 30GB of data (files/folders).

C:\secret\Stuff\Here

Steps

  1. Move c:\secret\Stuff\Here to d:\stuff\ToKeep\Here
  2. Open CMD “Admin Priviledge” Window
  3. mklink /D “c:\secret\Stuff\Here” “d:\stuff\ToKeep\Here”

Have a nice day

Thanks - But instead of doing all that above what I don’t understand is why can’t MS/Asobo make it an option to install huge bulk of files onto other drive. They did give that option in MSFS so why can’t they do same thing in 2024 version. Not everyone has larger C drives, Half of space gets taken by windows installation as well as any further windows updates which leaves very little space after.

Another reason why I am not going to bother with MSFS 2024 just yet.

1 Like

Agreed - I can’t quite figure out why they’ve removed the ability to install the bulk of local files in another location.

I install the Steam version of MSFS 2024 in my D: Drive but i have a directory in
C:\Users\larry\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\StreamedPackages. What are these files for?