Is it possible to place the Community folder elsewhere?

[wthomas33065 994]

12 minutes ago, sauviat said:

Ron, Sitting on the desktop, does that imply it is still on the C drive? My C and D are two different SSDs and I require it to sit on D for space.

Martin

Adrian, my head hurts at my age to understand the links. The page I have read through, but if I make a mistake can it be undone?

Martin

Yes.  It can be undone.  

Symbolic links are simply a way to trick the program into thinking that a resource is on one volume when the actual data is on the other.   The difference between a symbolic link and shortcut is subtle, but crucial when dealing with a program.

For example.  A shortcut simply tells the program to look at the other drive to find the data.  If the program is programmed to follow a shortcut, great.  But many programs are not programmed that way.  They don't recognize the shortcut.  So a symbolic link is an OS level shortcut so that the PROGRAM thinks the asset is still at the volume it is expecting it to be, but the OS itself is going to the actual location of the file.

The question is, (and I haven't played with this), is if MSFS recognizes shortcuts or not.  

Edited September 11, 2020 by wthomas33065

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

10 minutes ago, sauviat said:

Ron, Sitting on the desktop, does that imply it is still on the C drive? My C and D are two different SSDs and I require it to sit on D for space.

Martin

Adrian, my head hurts at my age to understand the links. The page I have read through, but if I make a mistake can it be undone?

Martin

Yes Martin, it is a shortcut to the original folder.

No disrespect, but this like talking to my wife when she wails "What's it doing now?"

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

1 minute ago, wthomas33065 said:

The question is, (and I haven't played with this), is if MSFS recognizes shortcuts or not.  

Of course it does. Microsoft invented shortcuts didn't they?

[Adrian123 1,015]

Just now, wthomas33065 said:

The question is, (and I haven't played with this), is if MSFS recognizes shortcuts or not.  

I experimented with this and didn't have much luck. Not sure it's my stupidity or if the file is protected. I also have at least two Comminty folders. One in the location I told to install to M2 SSD) and the other in the updata/user/ Flight simulataor..yad yada.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Adrian123

[wthomas33065 994]

20 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Of course it does. Microsoft invented shortcuts didn't they?

True, but programmers often use common practices when coding.  For example, Linux doesn't use shortcuts, they use symbolic links.  Here's the rule of thumb I used.  Shortcuts are for people, symbolic links are for programs.  

 

20 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

I experimented with this and didn't have much luck. Not sure it's my stupidity or if the file is protected.

That's because you are confusing two locations.  MSFS has two major locations on your hard drive.  The "install" location and then the "user" location.

The install location often contains the .exe and all the files that they don't want you messing with.  And that location is hidden and you are right it's write protected.  Trying to create a shortcut to the executable reveals this.

C:\program files\WindowsApps\Microsoft_FightSimulator_<version>_x64_8wekyb3d8bbwe".  WindowsApps is write protected which is why it's very difficult to create a shortcut to the .exe or run the file from command line or a batchfile. (at least on window's store and gamepass versions of the game.)
 

The "user" location where all your preferences and 3rd Party created scenery is kept, is kept in your user profile area.  That is not write protected because it is part of your profile.  So you have control over it.  

C:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe

The community folder is in LocalCache\Packages of the above "user" directory.

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by wthomas33065

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

Perhaps this will help:

[sauviat 137]

For Ron and Bert: I have now made the Community shortcut on my desktop from my AppData, local, MSFSPackages Community, following R click, send to Desktop.

 

How do I now get that to my D drive

Martin

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

Now I'm confused. You want to move a shortcut to somewhere other than your desktop?

There are some seriously crossed wires here I think. Is the sim on D drive?

What happens when you click on the shortcut on your desktop?

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

This is the path to my install: F: Is the SSD that the sim has all to itself.

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2106435425-1881408138-1224511877-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe(your numbers will be different)\LocalCache\Packages\Community

[sauviat 137]

Ron the shortcut comes right back to the location on C drive, hence my question about the D drive. I don't mind if the shortcut is on the desktop but it needs to point to my D drive.

Did you have MSFS via MS store or other online store. I have the boxed version and why I have a different location to what your path is.

Martin

Edited September 11, 2020 by sauviat
additional text

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

MS Store.

When you click on the shortcut does it open the Community folder and can you see all the entries therein?

Have you noticed how everyone has disappeared? 😄

Do you do voice comms? i.e. Teamspeak?

[sauviat 137]

WhatsApp. Now installed Teamspeak3

The boxed version has a different install path. I donot have the last part of your path.

The shortcut comes back to my original location where the community folder is located.

My computer is new, just for MSFS. My C drive is not as large as the D drive, hence my wanting to move the whole of the community folder to the D drive.

Martin

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by sauviat
addition

[Phantoms 800]

Ron, I think there are two thoughts going on here. One a shortcut so that you can easliy go to your files and the second, actually moving your files to a new location.

 

If you just want an easy way to get to your files then use a shortcut to their folder.

If you want to move your files to another drive because it has more space, then move them and use a symbolic link to them so that your program still thinks it's looking in the original file location when in reality it access them through the symbolic link at the actual location they were moved to.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Phantoms

[cobalt 798]

20 hours ago, Ron Attwood said:

Unless I'm missing something, not impossible, all you have to do is:

Find the folder (this could take some hours!)

Right click

Select 'Send to Desktop(Create Shortcut)

Et voila! Shortcut on desktop. You can the add or delete files  straight from there.

Simples. 🙂

You are correct. I did this several days ago and it works like a gem. BTW, it need not take hours to find -- a search in the C drive for "Community" will locate it in seconds.

[Ron Attwood 3,465]

1 hour ago, cobalt said:

BTW, it need not take hours to find

Just a little joke. 🙂