To Run as administrator or not to Run as administrator

I read a few guides on MSFS2020 (RDPresets, SoFly, numerous AVSIM posts, Reddit posts, etc.) and all suggest to Run as administrator. Don’t ask me why, they just pretty much all do. I was also always running FSX, P3D v2,3,4,5 as an administrator, this was always suggested, not doing so did result in many issues. In one of the guides, it’s also suggested to take ownership of the WindowsApps directory and set FlightSimulator.Exe to always run as an administrator. Yes, I’m talking about MS Store version. I tried to do this, I was able to take ownership as the guide suggested but I’m not able to set the Exe to always run as an administrator because I get “Access denied” when I try to do that. So, my question is, should we or should we not Run as administrator and if not, why are so many people suggesting to do it and also is MSFS 2020 so different from FSX and P3D regarding this?

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Shouldn’t matter, the flightsimulator.exe has special permissions already.

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I own this PC and I am part of the Admin group so I never bother unless the program specifically asks me to when installing or whatever.

As far as MSFS is concerned, I haven’t noticed a blind bit of difference.

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So, people and all those guides saying it should be run as an administrator are just wrong? Why are they saying it then?

I notice zero difference running MSFS as admin or not.
Nor running Process Lasso with MSFS.

Probably because of posts like this one below. Personally I think it’s a placebo effect but, there you are.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/comments/ic1dfh/running_the_game_as_admin_solved_my_stuttering/

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No, more because for the past 20 years this was the case with FSX, P3D v2/3/4/5 and several comprehensive guides for MSFS2020 also suggest this.

I’ve tried both with and without admin. There’s no difference I can perceive. Same frame rates in either case, and heavy areas that cause low frame rates and stuttering (like around KLAX and KJFK) still perform the same.

Until someone can come up with hard benchmarks and graphs showing otherwise, I consider this to be wishful thinking at best.

Sounds like a case of the old dogs with the “but we’ve always done it this way” syndrome. lol

(BTW, I’m an old dog too, but an adaptable one :stuck_out_tongue: )

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I rarely give an application Admin, anything requiring it either wasn’t programed very well, will do something i dont want or needs to hack into something else (which is wanted at times) otherwise nope.

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It’s also critical that NASA/JPL mission control room personnel eat peanuts right before every Mars landing attempt.

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i never run the program as administrator.
if this program needed to be run as administrator, it would indicate some shoddy programming.

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Since running as an Admin only gives additional rights to access parts of Windows that it normally would be unable to see, I can’t imagine running as an admin would make any difference. Since the code was co-written/sponsored (however you want to say it) by Microsoft, you’d think they would allow their own executable to have access to whatever it needs to run smoothly. I mean, why would they not?

It’s got to be a placebo effect. Someone did it once – and probably changed some other setting but didn’t think it would make a difference – and it ran better, so therefore, it’s a must to do it.

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I’m sure nobody on the internet would be guilty of this kind of shoddy thinking. The internet is the bastion of all that is true and accurate!

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How about in connection with communicating with other mods and addons? Just thinking out loud.

The only thing that requires run as admin for me these days are FSX/P3D addon installers and some Oculus VR related stuff, and thats because they need windows registry writing permissions.

Maybe not for the Steam version, forgot to mention that. But even then it shouldn’t matter.

I saw that too! It cracked me up. Salted Peanuts anyone?

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As I posted above, I think this is what we’re seeing…

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This :point_up_2: :1st_place_medal:

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There are lots of users of the Steam version who wrote NOT to run MSFS as administrator if you have trouble buying in the MSFS Marketplace. I could not buy anything there if running MSFS as administrator. But NOT as administrator allowed purchases just fine.

Another Marketplace failure cure is to turn on the ‘steam overlay’ by checking the box in the steam app settings. No overlay means you can’t buy in MSFS marketplace. This for the Steam version only of course. (I think the overlay allows Steam to make a % of all purchases).