When in windowed mode not full screen when I press escape it doesn’t bring me back to the menu where I can change aircraft or go back to the challenges.  The drop down menu on the top middle works but don’t see an option to get me back to main menu at the start of the simulator.  
 

not sure if this is a known bug or something on my side.  Thanks. 

On my screen the menu is underneath my task bar. Make the MSFS window a little smaller and you will see the bottom items.

Ok tried it with full screen too and can’t seem to get back to the main screen where I can select an airplane or location to fly from. 

Antney79,

You might have some how messed up the keyboard profile. If Full Screen and Window do not show ESC you can go to Controllers/Keyboard and invoke Keyboard default (F12), that should put the ESC back into the system. Now if you have saved some other keyboard profiles I am not sure how  the default will affect those other profiles.

 

Edited August 29, 20205 yr by w9nwrwi

This problem of the Esc key not offering a return to the main menu occurred after a recent update.  The Esc key now toggles to the options menu.  The End key will then offer a return to the main menu.