Moving the whole program to External Drive, Instead of just the Package Path

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

I’ve read, copied, and printed out the instructions on how to move the…
“C:\Users[Your username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages”,
to another external hard drive, and they seem straight forward enough.

However, what if I want to move the whole simulator…
“C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_1.24.5.0_x64_8wekyb3d8bbwe”,
to another external hard drive instead?

Is that possible, or absolutely not advisable? I get the impression most people only want to move their packages, because that’s what can start to take up room. But I want to move the whole thing, since with each full update, I’m concerned C-space is getting too full.

Thank you for your time in helping me.

2

You cannot move this file if you want FS2020 to run.
Or any FS2020 C: drive folders or files.
But you can install/move the “Installed Packages”.

Anyway, the drive space it uses is negligible (insignificant).

My C: files for FS2020:
C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Use 5.36 Mb

I installed FS2020 on D:\FS2020.

3

Blockquote MSFSRonS: You cannot move this file if you want FS2020 to run.
Or any FS2020 C: drive folders or files.
But you can install/move the “Installed Packages”.

Okay that’s what I wanted to know.

Oh interesting… you use a slightly different file path than I, but I imagine it accomplishes the same thing. Only 5.36mb? Amazing! I had no idea it was that small an amount. Thanks for sharing the news.

4

I deleted this file you mention by mistake. How can I get it back?Ive tried verifying the integrity on steam, reinstalling in another SSD and nothing....The sim works but I get freezes often. Thanks. If its that small, could you upload it for me maybe? Thaks again

5

Upon further review… My MS OneStore installation of the sim does indeed follow the same file path as yours (ignore what I said above about my path being different)-- but it is 179 GB !!!
I’d love to know how you got away with just 5.36 MB of space usage. Or am I confused, and we’re talking about 2 completely different things? I’m referring to my packages folder within the address you gave above.

I hope to move it to my P-drive, my 5 tb external hard drive.

6

With MSFS, everything is evolving.

I have always had FS2020 install on my D: drive.

I moved it there with the Windows Apps, MS Flight Simulator App
“Move” command.

It did move FS2020 to my D: drive but left the “Installed Packages” on C:. Basically, copied the Packages from C: to D:.

I did, back then, go to C: and deleted them.

Now, I only have FS2020 installed initially from MS Store/XBox
directly to the D: drive. Thus the 5.32 MB.

My C; drive only has the Symbolic Links to the FS22020 folders on the D: drive. They do not occupy drive space.

Look at this Topic. Also applies to Windows 10.