I am preparing for our stand at FSExpo and hope that somebody here has some advise.
We are renting the PC hardware and have to install MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 on those machines. But knowing the connection speeds in hotels and congress halls, I am expecting problems. Does anybody have any experience with moving a install copy from one system to another? Or any other advice? Get SSDs with Windows and MSFS and replace the ones in the machines?
Mathijs Kok
PMDG
Taking the drive from one computer to another SHOULD work, I’d put the chances at 90% assuming it’s Windows 11 and all latest patches from the source PC. The closer you can get the 2 systems the better chance you’ll have at success. Mainly motherboard manufacturer, and same CPU and GPU brand.
No matter what, you will most likely have to reauthorize Windows. That’s typical after a hardware change.
Finally, I’m a MS Store MSFS person, so as long as you use the same MS account you should be fine. Steam is probably easier.
Hoping others can chime in.
Personal Comments and Observations
I’m a local - the WiFi and connectivity for exhibitors at PCC isn’t the worst, so I think you’ll be okay bandwidth and latency wise. All boils down to how ready the CC is leading up to Friday night.
Thanks for the advise so far!
With 2024 maybe download as much as possible to local disk. A 1TB disk would be enough for everything. Depending on where you demo fly it may be worth having a scenery cache file large enough to hold an area you would visit before hand, to ensure as much of the terrain you plan to fly over is on local disk also.
I run Steam and have both FS2020 and FS2024 on different M.2 drives and off the main OS storage.
If I was going to set up rented systems, I’d set them up the same way. That way you would only need to “reconnect” the files to a fresh Steam install you do on the rented systems. Works a treat and I’ve done similar a few times during hardware upgrades.
M.2 is a bit of surgery though and different M.2 slots could stomp on other peripherals or even inactivate some stuff. Maybe SATA SSDs would be better as long as there are power cords or you have some extensions (being mindful some pinouts are different with different power supplies).
I wouldn’t redo their Windows installs if it can be avoided just because of hardware drivers and such that might also be needed. Of course their Windows installs could be problematic anyway but there are things that get configured in a Windows install based on the hardware it’s going on. Maybe you can do a plain vanilla install somehow but it probably wouldn’t be optimum.
Mmmm, you are right, Steam libraries can be moved from one system to another. Need to think about that, might be the solution.
In previous FSExpos, Microsoft has had multiple (~10?) PCs setup, all running 2020, with additional vendors running it, too, and the venue was able to take it. Clearly, we haven’t seen 2024 perform in this situation yet, so all bets are off. But historically, it’s been okay.
As for moving installations, I would only feel comfortable moving the Packages folder between machines. I would use the installer for the base install.
By the way, don’t know if you’re on FSA’s Discord server, but other vendors may have some additional opinions.
There’s caveats with that though. And you can do that with any storage I think. You can preload all your stuff and just “reconnect” it to Steam.
Might be some other gotchas in there, though. I’d do a full test setup with a rented computer stand-in just to make sure. I don’t think it needs to be the same Steam account but not certain. I think Steam just inventories files and calls it good if things are ok. At first it looks like it will download everything but then it backs off as it finds stuff already there.
There still could be a fair download with 2024 just like with 2020 just for the loader. I’m not very experienced with 2024 to say but 2020 with Steam downloads the first part of the sim to the point where it checks for and installs updates. After that it swaps to the sim files you have on your drive.
But you could even bring the sim files on a USB stick and copy them into place on a system drive if you have enough room and don’t want to do surgery. Then reconnect.
Hopefully not leading astray but I think you have a few options.
You should check with the supplier of the PCs to see if replacing existing hardware on the Motherboard is OK.
If the rented PC comes with Windows pre-installed, be prepared to update both Windows and the installed apps to the latest current versions / service packs, etc., depending upon how recent their system image is (I’m assuming they flatten & restore using a system image between rentals. That image could be quite old). You might find this step requires downloading far more data (and take far more time) than the base 2024 install.
Install only the MSFS 2020 launcher (2GB) on the rented PC. Then, connect your SSD drive that contains the MSFS 2020/Official and Community folders. After that, launch the MSFS 2020 launcher on the rented PC and point it to your SSD drive.
This will allow the simulator to use your existing files without needing to re-download everything.
How would one do that exactly?
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/new-ssd-m-2-nvme/570593/4?u=tenpatrol
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/msfs-drive-usage-workaround/641289/3?u=tenpatrol
If the company you’re renting the PC from allows hardware modifications (such as swapping or adding drives, changing BIOS settings, etc.), then technically you can install your own SSDs with Windows and MSFS.
However, please note that running your existing Windows installation on a rental machine - which likely has a different motherboard and CPU - will almost certainly cause your Windows activation to become invalid.
In short: yes, it’s possible if the rental provider allows hardware changes, but be prepared for Windows to lose its activation and you may need to reactivate it using a valid product key.
Thanks for that!
Like you said, sometimes moving a system drive to another computer will work, and sometimes it’s a near impossible task. The latter is particularly true with pre-builts.
The other thing to consider is chipset drivers. Windows will usually not have a problem ignoring hardware devices that are different in the new system, and will usually handle plug-and-play driver installation fine, but some devices (like network adapters) can be problematic.
I think your 90% estimation is pretty close, as are your comments about Windows activation and updates.
If I was going to rent a computer for a show, I’d make sure I had it in my hands a week before I traveled, work on getting it running, then ship it to my hotel. I definitely wouldn’t have it shipped to the venue (or my hotel) at the last minute.