Bunch of people in forums have the same issue. Called Ms support, on the phone for over 90 minutes, they have absolutely no idea of what they re doing, and were of zero help.

I uninstalled reinstalled several times, restarts, cold boots, you name it.

The install in the store only says 990.1 MB, then second install appears on my desktop stating it requires 127 GB of drive space, my C-drive has room, I hit install, and it instantly disappears, and you see no download anywhere. Lunch game, few cuts scenes with audio, get to the "Press any key to start", hangs, and will go no further. Several reboots and a cold start after this, just repeat and rinse. 

Ms support tried to tell me it was Asobo Studio's problem, and to call them in France on my dime.

 

Pretty much , same boat here... Tried all suggestions in this forum by many people...NONE worked. Did a one last time reboot before retiring to bed.  This time I clicked on LAUNCH from MS store library link.  At first same screens came on then when I clicked on CLICK ANY KEY to START, that script disappeared and I now have a "blue bar": across the bottom of the screen from left to right about an eighth along the way.  I'm going to bed and try again tomorrow.  Good luck ! 

Same issue, So will leave it for a while, It must be at their end.

Hangs on the blue bar here too. It looks like they released a buggy beta.

Go through these steps:

Run Windows Update and update everything
Make sure no Windows Updates are pending
Go into APPS > Store 
Click on the ... 3-Dots in the top right corner
Click on Download and Updates
Click on Get Updates
Restart Windows
Run MSFS in Administration Mode

If that doesn't work go through these steps further:
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015760660

Edited August 18, 20205 yr by Matthew Kane

Thank you Matthew, Didn't work for me, But i did get a message up saying that their was a fault and would update me with a solution or words to that effect 

Still to follow the link that you supplied 

 

The download only took 3 minutes, Would this be correct for the Premium deluxe 

Edited August 18, 20205 yr by malct

i think this is my issue , its not giving me the option of downloading, when i downloaded before, it was just the shell , any tips 

Where do you want to install?

 

It looks like you don’t have any applicable device(s) linked to your Microsoft account. To install, sign in on a device with your Microsoft account.

Get more information

I too had "press any key to continue", black screen, it just hung in that state, tried reformatting disk, started again, same result. I was in a loop. Turns out I was missing an Xbox app (that I had removed from windows because I don't do games) and not only that, you have to setup an Xbox ID account and login to it.

At "press any key to continue", it was looking for my Xbox ID to download the software, but as I didn't have one, It just stayed in the loop.

As soon as I downloaded the xbox app, created an ID, MFS started to download correctly.

I cannot find any info from MS that states you have to have an Xbox ID for the flight sim to work. I would have thought that this was "basic" and they appear to have missed it!

Maybe they assume everyone that flight sims is already a gamer with an Xbox account?

Oh dear.

I have solved the problem "Press any key to start" and loop black screen, after hours and hours of headcache:

 

I missed the xbox app and services, so first of all, you need to:

1. install Xbox App from microsoft store
2. open Xbox App and check to have installed:
3. - Xbox Identity Provider
4. - Purchase App
5. - Feedback Hub
6. wait the installation then run as administrator Flight Simulator from start
7. Now, you will have to press a key and finally you will be asked to login in the Xbox live with your microsoft account.
8. continue and you will start to can download or play with your game.

 

After this experience I will NEVER buy again from Microsoft store, anything. They are totally a shame.

Hi,

I was in the same do loop with the press any key.  I have been using MS2020 since it was available and a first time for this bug?  I paid for the game pass and downloaded the app.

It is loading now. 

Thank you for the tip.

Edited August 20, 20205 yr by BobP

I have notice that if I fire up FS, and walk away (takes for ever to load), If I’ve been on the “Press to Start” screen for a minute or two, pressing any key on he KB does nothing.
But I noticed that if you right click the mouse, it will continue on to the home menu.

 

Ms are we really going to have to wade through all the cut-scenes for the life of the sim, ought to be an option to turn them off, FS takes long enough to launch any ways.