While my system is not absolute top of the line, it is above the optimum suggested by MS (Ryzen 3700X, 32 Gb Ram, 2070 Super, FS on NVMe SSD). Still, launching the program is unusually slow.

I wonder if what happens on my system is general experience, or if something may have gone wrong with my install.

1) When double-clicking the FS icon, NOTHING happens for over 30 seconds, my desktop remains visible, nothing indicates that the program is starting up. Users will be tempted to doubleclick again.

2) After those 30 seconds the screen turns black and empty for about another 15 seconds

3) Now, after 45 seconds without any message about the program loading, the intro videos come up, followed by the "Press any key to continue" screen. Again: Not really obvious to me why loading is interrupted at this point and asks for a keypress just to go on?

5) Main menu is finally reached after slightly over 3 minutes.

Is this general experience? I am in flight sim for a long time and never has any sim started up fast because of all the backstage processes being set up, but this startup makes me wonder if it might not be a problem in my system.

Loading times are long. I really don't need corporate logos and screen splashes plus lift music everytime I fire it up. Nor do I need "checking for updates" each time I run it (especially given that most of the time it is crashing to desktop anyway). Somewhere in a cfg file will be an option to turn updates off. You only need to update once a day, a maybe 3-5 days. That update screen takes another 3 minutes of your life.

I usually click it and go bio and ready up for another day in the shiny new sim. When Im back Its almost done 😉

And right now I think it is good that it checks for updates at every startup because we never know when Asobo pushes a bugfix out (simconnect fix plox!)

31 minutes ago, SimFx said:

Is this general experience? 

Same here, but I have a minimum spec pc. 

22 hours ago, SimFx said:

I wonder if what happens on my system is general experience, or if something may have gone wrong with my install.

same, I could do without the logos and press a key to continue too

Edited August 20, 20205 yr by n4gix
Removed unnecessary long quote!

if you install the sdk they give you a launcher that skips the logos ("fsdevmodelauncher.exe")

Thanks, I'll give the developer launcher a try then

Found just another solution on the MS forum and that too does the trick.

You simply need to create a new desktop shortcut containing the following command - it will launch the program without any of the videos:

cmd.exe /C start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App "-FastLaunch"

22 hours ago, SimFx said:

5) Main menu is finally reached after slightly over 3 minutes.

I'm wondering why it needs to load 5+ GBs into memory before it gets to the opening screen and I've told it to actually do something.

18 minutes ago, SimFx said:

Found just another solution on the MS forum and that too does the trick.

Thanks for sharing! I've put a copy of this in the "Tips and Tricks" forum attributed to you as the reporter of this very helpful tip.

1 hour ago, Twenty6 said:

I'm wondering why it needs to load 5+ GBs into memory before it gets to the opening screen and I've told it to actually do something.

Indeed. And then why it interrupts its own loading process just to keep the user occupied by pressing a key. Somehow weird startup procedure.. 🙂

1 hour ago, n4gix said:

I've put a copy of this in the "Tips and Tricks" forum

Thanks!