I thought after the recent major updates, my installed MSFS file size should go down to 80+GB? However, my current MSFS folders still shows 120GB (122 to be exact). Please see picture
What am I missing here? I mean…I spent about a good 2 and half hours doing the last updates 
Thank you all as always for the help.
The base package/initial download has been reduced.
Not the game or installed files.
They improve the compression algorithm so that your download file size is significantly reduced into 80 GB or so. Once it’s unpacked, they became 122 GB again.
Yep, I know a few people who reinstalled msfs hoping that they would save some disk space. None of them did, of course but I guess quite a few were under that impression.
Glad I didn’t make that mistake and end up having to change all my settings and put some of my mods back in.
Of course, most mods go into the community folder, so that’s prettyy easy, but I have a few which don’t. You can also keep your settings by saving your cfg files I suppose, but I can imagine the permissions would probably not let you put them back.
Well seeing as the settings are all stored in the cloud… there’s really no need to back them up.
You are wrong mate 
If smth went wrong (ms side) … system image backup is a must in some cases.
It’s always a good idea to keep a backup of your msfs settings.
Below default msfs 2020 settings folder location (ms store ver).
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
As everyone already stated - there’s no difference in the size of the packages on your drive. You still require exactly the same amount of space you did before.
The difference is that the update packages have now been optimized containing only the files that have been changed since the last update vs entire folders of content that have had perhaps a couple of minor tweaks. This makes the overall update download “smaller” as you’re not downloading unnecessary data, but only the differential data between what you already have and what’s required for the update.
That’s what they’ve “reduced in size”. Not the overall sim package size.
What surprises me is that anybody would go through all the hassle of uninstall, re-download and reinstall simply to gain about 40Gb
Honestly, I have USB sticks with nearly that capacity.
MSFS 2020 Premium Deluxe download size 86.4GB
MSFS 2020 Premium Deluxe install size 101.6GB
MSFS 2020 Premium Deluxe with WU1,2,3,4 all liveries, aicrafts, airports (without freeware EDLP) install size 128.8GB
101.6GB (premium deluxe)
Try running FS2020 from a USB stick 
As a programmer it was obvious to me they optimized or rather cleaned up the installation process. Downloading 170GB for a 102GB final install size is criminal. (I assume you still need to download the world updates separately?)
But the wording was very poor, typical programmer speak assuming everyone knows how installers and patches work.
Perhaps one day they’ll actually let you choose what to install, instead of install everything first, then go into the content manager to remove what you don’t need.
Yes (10 characters 
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I just caught up on all the replies here. THANK YOU all so much for the information and tips. This is why I LOVE this forum!
I read back through the thread but can’t figure out this reference… can 'ya please toss me a bone here 
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