For whatever it’s worth, I found that right clicking on flight simulator icon and selecting “Run as Administrator” has solved a lot of the Freezing and CTD issues I was getting when loading into a plane.
EDIT: I have Windows Store version
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Yes, this has been the case since MSFS launched.
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I always have mine set to never notify … completely turn off, no?
May be a Windows Store version thing, I have Steam version?
..I think we’re all going to need tags lol, PC/Steam here.
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I just put an edit on my topic… we will need tags soon
No need “right click”.
Right click on shortcut and select properties.
Click shortcut tab and click advanced > mark box run as administrator > ok
Click compatibility tab and mark box run this program as administrator
and disable fullscreen optimizations > apply > ok
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Even Better!! 
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Sorry, what is UAC?
User Access Control - for example, when you run an installer and the computer asks if you’re sure you want to do it.
Why disable fullscreen optimizations…?
Full screen optimizations do not play well with MSFS… number one culprit of micro stuttering
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User Access Control. It is a warning message that comes up when trying to install programs or do administrative type tasks. You can turn it off by typing in “msconfig” in the search bar. Go to TOOLS tab, then highlight “change UAC settings” and then hit launch down there in bottom right area, and then pull the slider all the way down. It will NOT affect the SIM, has nothing to do with the SIM. It suppresses those irritating messages that will pop up all the time when you try to do the smallest of tasks.
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Or just use the Win-10 start menu search and type UAC. That search is probably one of the top 5 things that MS actually did well in this OS!
I have the windows store version – actually the gamepass PC version, and I do not have to run the sim as admin and I don’t get the CTD’s that plague so many.
In any event, if there are cases where running the game as admin 'fixes" issues, that should go back to the studio as a bug. Becuase it is 2021 and security should no longer be an afterthought.
It is a bad practice for a game studio to produce a game that has to have admin rights to run. Note, I said run, not “install” and not “update”.
Also, because it isn’t 2002, no one should be disabling UAC either. Any gaming forum where that is recommended, that post should be regarded as being clueless – possibly even malicious – and that advice should not be followed.
Caveat: If one happens to have a rig dedicated to MSFS2020 and does not ever use that for other things, like web browsing and logging into accounts which hold sensitive information, then I could be convinced it is OK to put gaming convenience over security.
BTW, the same advice goes for those that think GPU drivers should not be updated. Yes, I am talking about you, x-plane forums!. LOL.
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https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR (MICROSOFT STORE VERSION)
A simple fix when experiencing crashes at launch is to run the program as administrator instead of clicking the launch button from the Microsoft Store or the play button from the Xbox App.
- Type “Flight Simulator” in the Windows search bar
- Select Run as administrator in the menu
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I have no idea of why running an application with administrator rights would increase its stability: having „administrator rights“ is all about having access to privileged operating system resources (file system, hardware access, …). So either you have access, or you don‘t. It works - or it doesn‘t.
But who am I to tell anyway (btw I have the Steam edition).
However I would be extra careful with addons that run in the context of FS 2020 (so anything you put into the community folder, from sources other than the marketplace). I don‘t know how processes are separated (if at all) in FS 2020 or whether addons running in their own process inherit access rights from the main executable, but if they do (or are even running in the same process like the main executable) then that would mean that the addon has admin rights as well.
I have purchased airplanes from the marketplace and at least one of them installed DLLs (= executable code) somewhere in the community (?) folder.
So pay extra attention what addons you select from other sources, especially when running „as admin“.
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Noted!! Yes, I have had issues with add-ons… even ones that are claimed to be SU5 friendly, even ones within the marketplace. For example, DRZEWIECKI DESIGN scenery software in the marketplace can’t be updated until something in the SDK software is repaired, according to their support forum.
But for whatever reason, Run as Administrator has some effects in the software, as noted in the Zendesk post link on this post by the moderator. Microsoft obviously knows something or they wouldn’t post it as a solution. But I thought just as you did…that it allows permissions or not and that was all.
I was of course referring to yet another potential issue with addons (besides becoming incompatible with certain updates): “being malicious and evil”.
Okay, first off, I don’t want to insinuate that I have ever heard of such an addon for FS 2020, let alone even encountered one myself. It goes without saying that one should always be careful when installing software on the computer (mobile device, …), and whether the product is really the product (executable, addon, app, …) it claims to be (depending on the source from where it was downloaded).
Second, I am not familiar with the FS 2020 SDK as far as “in process addons” are concerned (I am talking about aircraft, scenery such as airports, but also “utilties” that run “within” FS 2020, extending cockpit functionality etc.), but it is my rough understanding that the actual functionality of gauges and cockpit displays (and “simulation logic” of the airplane in general) is implemented e.g. in C++ and then compiled into a WASM (“Web Assembly Module” - essentially “JavaScript executable within a web browser context”, simply said).
And I believe that this WASM is actually being run in a “sandbox”, that is, access is (should be) limited to the necessary functionality within FS 2020 (“the process”), but not beyond.
But I am not quite sure whether addons are “limited” to those WASM (and how well the sandbox is really secured): e.g. I believe certain addons (again, I am now exclusively talking about those which are started “from within” the FS 2020 process - not external applications which are started by the user “in parallel” to the FS 2020) can actually launch and communicate with local executables (“separate processes”), and those then have full access to the entire operating system API.
And if those executables then “inherit” the access rights from the “main process” (which is “spawning” those separate processes) then that would mean that they have “administrator rights” as well, if you started FS 2020 with “administrator rights” in the first place (again, it is possible - programmatically - to “downgrade” the access rights of a newly launched process, but the details of the corresponding “system call” currently escape me: and of course a “malicious” application wouldn’t deliberately “downgrading” the access rights of its newly spawned process (another *.exe) which then runs “outside” of FS 2020).
Uh… it’s getting a bit too technical, more than I wanted (and I am now getting on a slippery road myself here, would have to consult the corresponding system API documentation first ;)), but you get the idea 
So again, always be careful what you download and install: read reviews, verify the source, verify the downloaded binary as well (e.g. against published and trusted hash codes)… and be double-careful when running applications “with administrator rights” (and mis-trust any application which “requires” them in the first place, unless it is some kind of “system extension” that has an obvious reason to require “administrator rights”).
Btw. I just checked the location of those DLLs (“dynamically loaded libraries”) I was talking about (and which got installed with an in-game marketplace purchase - in fact, at least two aircraft installed separate DLLs, so I believe that this is “an SDK thingie”, nothing to worry about):
They are located here:
C:\Users[My User]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages[aircraft name]
Well, it is theoretically possible that the application “requires” administrator rights only “at some point”, during runtime. So the “stability” of the application can be explained that way, yes.
Of ourse it would be a programming error (“bug”) to a) require administrator rights in the first place and b) if that would really be the case just “crash” when those rights were not present.
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