Issues With WIndows 11, Unable to play MSFS

Since the last Microsoft Window 11 update. Several of my apps and desktop icons including my virus checker have vanished ? ALL previous Win 11 settings have gone, and ALL passwords have gone. Flight Sim 2020 is still there but it will not start, and it is rejecting MS Store login. Was the last Win 11 update a serious security update? I am sick to death of this desktop PC and I am seriously thinking of selling it. I can’t stand anymore huge amounts of time trying to get things back to normal. I HAVE had enough of this! Just stick to my Apple iPad and iPhone.

Is it possible that your desktop background has also changed? It could be that you are seeing a temporary profile being loaded, not your correct user profile. Sometimes this happens due to issues with startup and shutdown or an update.

You can check by going to C:\Users and checking if there is a user called Temp in the list.

If there is, you can try the following. Note this requires editing the registry and you will have to try this at your own risk!

  1. Open Registry Editor by pressing Win Key + R and then type regedit and hit enter

  2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

  3. Expand that key with the arrow on the left and look in the list of profiles that start with S. If you see two that look the same, but one has a .bak next to it, likely you have a temp profile loaded. To fix this, click on the one with .bak in the name and confirm that profile image path matches your actual username on your PC. You will see that if you click on the one that doesn’t have .bak in it, the profile imagine path will say C:\Users\Temp which is wrong. Simply right click the one without .bak in it and rename it by adding .old to the end. Then, go to the one that has .bak in it and the correct path, right click, rename it and simply delete the .bak from the name. Don’t delete any other characters just the .bak. Close the editor and restart the machine and you should get your normal profile back.

My PC is very fast. Intel i9-11900K (11th gen). RTX3090 GPU, Fast Gen4 Corsair 2TB SSD, 32GB Corsair RAM. Ect. When last played FS2020 was running very fast frames in 4K , most settings at Ultra. Because of security, I will have sell the PC, with ALL SSD’s removed. Far too much time re-setting Win 11, and how do re-install Win 11 without an account? Sorry to see it go, but I HAVE had enough of Microsoft PCs, for good!

Thank you very much for advice, but this last Win 11 update, has almost totally finished Microsoft PC’s for me. Even if I fix it this time, how long before another major security update comes along, that upsets all your settings and passwords. I will try and have a go at your suggestions, and thank you. I strongly feel my time with Microsoft PCs, are coming to an end.

What has this rant got to do with MSFS? Maybe post on the appropriate forum.

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Come on! What part of the forum do YOU suggest? I am unable to even start MSFS?

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I am WAITING for a reply! MSFS WILL NOT START. IT IS NOT A RANT! At least I got some advice from AngryBadger which I will try. You are NO help at all!

Instead of getting rid of the PC, switch it over to Linux, I had preliminary tests running MSFS in linux steam using Proton. If your a mac muffin, you’ll also see that Linux and OS/X are both unix systems.

And if you dont have the fortitude to monkey with MSFS under linux, you could always run Xplane in native mode in Linux and have to do no messing around it really really works.

As far as it wont start in its win11 current config, we need to know what processor, vid card, and how much mem your system has. Also are you a steam monkey or a MS monkey?

Thank you very much for your reply and advice, I will certainly look into that. I have 32GB Memory. I did post my system info on here (see above) Intel i9-11900K.

I suspect he means why post in the MSFS forums.
As you have stated it’s a Windows issue which has caused you to lose your settings and passwords.
You need to fix the windows issues first and then see if MSFS works.

Have you tried restoring windows to a point before the problems occured?

As it seems that you often get issues with Windows updates have you considered an image backup solution that enables you to step back to a previous working version without much trouble?

Maybe I’m just lucky but I have never had a Windows update cause any problems on my PC.

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Thank you. I posted on here because MSFS does not even start. This happened directly after the last Win11 update, I have already reported this on Microsoft. I will attempt to do restore. Thanks for that advice. I must go now, as I have run out of time. I will get back at a later time.

From everything I remember from the last time I installed MSFS an MS/XBox account was necessary. I don‘t have Win11 but for MSFS I almost certainly had to log in.

I have Win11, and the sim works well for me. You still need that XBox login.

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The OP makes an excellent point. MS wants to control my life every time I start this. First when setting the thing up, almost mandatory I have an online account at outlook.com. I want a LOCAL account to setup PC, so I have to tell setup, NO INTERNET, then it lets me create a local account. Then ad-nauseum I get to delete “one drive” time and time again. I store NOTHING on the cloud, why, simple, the governments control the cloud, they can and do shut down the cloud to control people. I have my stuff backed up local, and protected in various ways with complex passwords, and EMP bags, and put in locked container. I don’t trust government at all. I know, I used to work for Government, mostly a bunch of idiots, controlled by political whim.

Second, updates, they change things, and it really makes me mad some idiot in an office who think they know better than me how I want my PC to run.

Apple is the exact same way, and you can add google and several others to that list.

With the electrical grid issues in several states in the USA, and Europe facing unprecedented energy related issues this winter, anyone saving on cloud deserves to lose it all, think people.
For ME, MSFS loads fine, but several other things are not acting like they did, i.e., desktop arrangement will not save, and I change it to what I want, it reverts back to the unsaved state every reboot. MS Media Player is also different, and it does not display or save media like it did, and the biggest point of contention is: My Custom Power Plan, reverts every single time to what "windows thinks I want it to be instead of what I want it to be.

If MSFS ran on Linux easy, I might go there, just about done with Windows, but apple is just as bad and not a choice, plus hate apple because the send all the jobs to China.

I was thinking upgrading to Windows 11, but this post has cured me on that as well. I just rebuilt this laptop to Windows 10 OEM and did that 3 times because various things refused to work the way they used to work, MS has done something in an update to mess up the OS, and I cannot pinpoint what that is. What happened to the customer being the king of products and always right.

Thanks, I tried your suggestion, but it does not work. I try to start MSFS, click, double click, right click open or and Admin open. Nothing happens. I tried a restore point, and Win 11 said it was not able to perform a restore? I am NOT going to re-install FS, BUT will probably uninstall completely from my SSD and this time TOTALLY forget about it. It was working fine, and very smooth in 4K and ultra settings, before the Win 11 update. But now it will GO for good. What a shame!

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Would you prefer this thread be locked if you aren’t now looking for a solution, or should we investigate further?

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This is only the first day, so give it a bit more time. I am willing to try a few more suggestions. I may contact FS Support, but not for a few days. All other Apps and some games are working fine, as are the apps that were removed after the Win11 update, and I am getting all my passwords back, and my previous desktop and task bar settings. Maybe I could start FS via the MS Store, where I purchased FS? I will have a look now. Just looked in FS Store and FS is NOT listed as installed?

It would probably be worth restarting from the position of knowing, and assuming nothing.

Check that the OS believes it is installed, where it is installed, and what the “content.xml” file says at the bottom when it lists where the sim is installed. That kind of thing.

Thanks, I will try that. Just looked in MS Store and FS is NOT listed as installed?

Try this …
1: Firewalls, how many are active. Remove 3rd party firewall and leave defender as default. Reboot. Login to windows.
2: Logout. (Do not restart or Shutdown). If there are 2 users active than your old user might show.
3:Choose " Settings, then scroll down to Recovery, choose Advance Startup choose Boot Options and then Safe Mode with Internet and try and uninstall the last update.
4: Go to All Apps and open flight sumulator from there. (It could be your desktop link is corrupt.)
5: If Step 4 does not work , Go to "Settings then Apps. Find Microsoft Flight simulator and choose Advanceed Options, then choose Repair