Every time I start the sim, I get a dialogue box from Microsoft Store Package Dependency Installer asking for permission to make changes on my PC. I have no idea what this is for, so I simply close the window, and then the sim opens as normal. I was hoping someone could tell me what this is for? I submitted an inquiry with the Zendesk almost two weeks ago, but I’ve heard nothing back yet. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer.
It only comes up for me when I dont have an internet connection. Interesting that it does for you everytime
Same problem here. Installer opens ever single time. If I let it run, MSFS starts no problem. So far no functional issues with it, but it scares me to think it will bite me soon enough. I’d prefer to fix it.
Are you running MSFS in administrator mode by any chance? I know the message pops up when you do that.
Regards
Steve
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A forum monitor said that I need to say OK to the MS Store Dependency Installer message. The only time I see the message now is the day of an update or patch. I hope this helps.
I am still having this problem. It has persisted through several updates as well as through several add-on installations. Other than the fact that I always get the notice each time I start Fs2020 and I always have to press ok to install the store, and there is always a long system hang afterward, everything after that always seems to work just fine. But… I hate it because clearly something is broken.
Yes I am running in admin mode. Ordinarily, I always run everything in admin mode because I am the admin! I know how to run in admin when I am not an admin, but the silly question is, how do I run in non-admin when I am admin?
I’m afraid I don’t know the answer as to why the pop up appears everytime. I get it occasionally, usually after something has been updated
It also happens if you run MSFS in admin mode (going by your response, I’d say you’re not running it in admin mode)
You might be login into your pc as an admin (most of us are) but actually running flight sim as admin means clicking “run as admin” when you launch it.
Silly question from me now… how often are you running flight sim? Maybe Windows keeps updating more frequently?
Regards
Steve
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Not a silly question. I’m mostly retired. I fly at least once every other day and often 2 or 3 times a day. 2 or 3 times being a complete shutdown in between.
There is no way I start the program by “choosing” to run as an admin. I just start by clicking on the program from the start menu. However, I do have an admin account and that is the account I use to login all the time. So that means I always have admin privileges and windows always knows that.
One thing you could try… maybe adding MSFS as an exception to Windows Defender, or add the MSFS folder.
Might be worth a try.
Regards
Steve
I’d love to try that, but that leads right into another HUGE issue that I have had with MSFS2020… WHERE IS IT? And, WHAT IS THE FILE NAME OF THE EXECUTABLE?
I’ve seen at least a dozen varients of the answer to those questions. It seems like the program and its components are installed all over my hard-drive in myriad different places and those places are different from where they are for other users!
In my humble opinion (as an old coder myself), that’s probably the cause of this particular problem! The installation itself doesn’t even know where it is! Hence the install question it poses every time I run it.
I think the executable is called flightsimulator.exe but I’m at work at the moment so can’t check.
When I installed it (MS Store download) I installed it to my second drive…
D:/FSIM
It’s so much easier to find the community folder for instance
If you had the time you could always reinstall it… but choosing your own installation location rather than letting it select a default location.
Ultimately though, the pop up message you see isn’t a serious issue is it? Maybe a slight inconvenience.I get it occasionally, usually after an update.
Regards
Steve
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Reinstalling just isn’t practical. I have a slow speed rural internet connection. It took 3 days to download the original package.
The popup message happens every single time I start the program. No exceptions.
I did a system wide search for “simulator” and didn’t find it. If you do get the chance to look again, I’d love to know what yours is called and where it is.
I agree, it wouldn’t be worth reinstalling MSFS.
As for the .exe file, you should find it in somewhere like this…
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
(Replace “yourname” with your actual name, or whatever you user name is)
You’ll need to make sure hidden files are showing.
or with hidden files showing, do a search for
FlightSimulator.exe and you should find it.
Hope this helps
Regards
Steve
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So I learned something from you! Apparently, even though I’m an admin, not everything actually gets run as an admin unless it is explicitly told to do that. I did as you suggested, and magicly, the error is gone and didn’t come back even when run normally.
Perfect! I owe you a beer my friend! Thank you!
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No luck finding flightsimulator.exe yet though.
However I did find more files hidden in:
C:\Program Files\Windows Apps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator…BBWE\Packages
Which I cannot access even as an admin. I’ll bet it is in there somewhere…
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They don’t want us accessing the files for this one do they? Lol
I’m so glad you’ve sorted it.
Happy flying 
Regards
Steve
Have you found a solution yet?
I started having the same issue after recently updating video driver, installing Logitech Options, and installing the UK update (don’t know what caused it). It was very annoying as I had to wait several minutes for the installer window to go away before the games loads.
Finally figured out that the while the window was active, it was allowing mouse movement and even changing focus (highlighting the Yes option when you hover over it), but it was not registering any mouse clicks.
I then tabbed to Yes using the keyboard and pressed enter, and it immediately went away and now the games loads normally again.
Folks this a harmless dependency installer that usually pops up after a Client update from the Windows Store (typically on Update day). Clicking “yes” will usually allow you to go about your day without issue. Additionally, if you use services such as CCleaner or similar, I’ve noticed after cleaning out temporary files and various program remnants you’ll get this dialogue box again.
After the UK update, the loader started doing it again.
I repeated the steps you recommended and ran as an admin.
It’s gone again!
Thank you yet another time!
Even I saw the pop up message last night… it’s fine now though
Regards
Steve