MSFS on Game Pass for PC not starting

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

Last time I played was about 2 or 3 days ago. Everything was fine.

When I click on the Flight Simulator icon in the menu and in the Xbox Game Pass for PC app, nothing happens. No spinner to indicate it’s loading.

I then tried to open up the app from the MS Store. I clicked on it, and redirected me to the Gaming Services page in the store. The page says that Gaming Services is installed, but there is a button on the upper right that says “Install on my devices”. I clicked that, installed on my desktop, and it just loads the same Gaming Services page again.

I’ve restarted my computer a few times. Same thing.

Other games on Game Pass for PC are fine. I can load and play them with no problems.

Then I remembered that I did something to the WindowsApps folder a few days ago. I had watched a video on YouTube about optimizing MSFS for the Quest 2, and I followed the steps which included changing the owner of the folder to my user to get into the MSFS folder, and then disabling fullscreen optimization on the FlightSimulator.exe file. At the time, I was still able to load and play MSFS.

Anyway, after remembering this, I went back into the WindowsApps folder, and even though I am set as the owner, when I double click on MSFS folder, I get an error message saying that the Location is not available, the folder is not accessible, and the file cannot be accessed by the system.

WindowsApps 7_29_2021 7_04_27 PM
WindowsApps 7_29_2021 7_04_27 PM834×236 5.03 KB

So, the only thing I can think of now is to try to restore the default owner of the WindowsApps folder… but I don’t know how to do that because I don’t even know what the default owner should be.

The other thing is to reinstall the game. But I’m hoping it doesn’t have to come to that as that’s going to take a while.

Any ideas??

2

So after googling around for a solution, I found this:

Redirected to the Microsoft Store page for Gaming Services [or] Error 0x80073D26 [or] Error 0x00000001 when you try to install, update, or launch MSFS – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com)

It didn’t help. It actually broke Game Pass even more as now I cannot play any of game on it, and not just Flight Simulator. Some games like MSFS, will just open the Gaming Services page on the MS Store where it says it’s already installed, but with an Install on my devices button.

Microsoft Store 7_29_2021 8_53_46 PM
Microsoft Store 7_29_2021 8_53_46 PM2554×1962 182 KB

When I click on install, sometimes it installs, but I just takes me to the same page. Still can’t play. Other times it doesn’t install at all.

3

Hello @alucard6822
I have never had any issues till 2 days ago. When I go to launch MSFS It tells me "update available through MS Store, then it opens MS Store and goes to Gaming services but it is all blanked out.
It then tells me to launch game through Xbox App. Xbox app launches and when you click on "play’ It takes me back to MS Store.
This is clearly an issue with Microsoft . So now I am unable to launch MSFS or any other game (forza) etc.
we need a fix fast
have a magic day

4

I suspect that this issue is related to the last update. Gaming Services might have run into some trouble as it is getting an update for MSFS.

This is probably why the above zendesk solution exists, for when there is an issue with Gaming Services.

There are two things you might want to do…

  1. Restart and open up Xbox Game Pass for PC app and see if you are prompted with a green notification at the top of the app that asks if you’re having trouble launching or installing games. The link from that notification will lead you to instructions for installing an optional Windows update that might fix the issue.

Actually, this didn’t work for me because the update does not appear on my Windows update screen. This seems to be MS’s official fix, so it might work for you.

  1. Try the zendesk solution linked in my previous post. I’ve seen lots of posts of people saying this has fixed their problem. However, be warned that this actually made the issue worse for me as after doing it, I couldn’t play any games at all (except for one!). But if you already are at a state in which you can’t play any games anyway, then I say go for it.

  2. If none of these work, you can reset your OS. That is what I did and now everything is working fine. However, the reset will delete all your games and apps on your main drive, and all your Game Pass games in every drive, so be sure to back up any save game files. Personal documents in your User folder won’t be deleted though.

Good luck!