But since the Community folder is OUR folder, shouldn’t it be easily accessible?

The path on my D drive (where I pointed the MS Store installer to) is so long that installing content here (like the A320 mod) produces path names longer than Windows allows (over 260 characters), so the sim intelligently enough simply ignores those files. I wondered why the A320 mod did not show up, until I discovered about the path name length. Thank you 😞 

Even better, after searching through my system I found a SECOND Community folder, this time on my C drive, and with a somewhat shorter path. Installing content here works, but it is NOT the drive where I wanted FS in the first place.  

I wonder where FS is actually installed? There are hundreds of files related to it on both C and D drives, many of them mirrored. I have a hard time believing that it is supposed to be this way.

Is it any wonder ? - why some of us in Flight Simming - after years of P3D and XPlane jiggery Pokers -

are eagerly awaiting what the new X Box Series X - and the bespoke MSFS - will offer us ---

all for $A 740 and a measly $10 a month compared to the best PC at the moment around $A4500😂

6 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

I have the same thing, and Microsoft is doing everything in their power to prevent me from simplifying this.  Until someone figures it out, I am declaring defeat and playing along.. 🙃

Bert, I have now a Junction for MSFSPackages (remember I have the boxed install and completely different to MS and Steam) from my C Drive to my D Drive. But... when I populate the Community folder on D it also populates the Community folder on C. Hence it is taking up space on both drives:(

I have written to the learned author of the Geek item about this Link Shell business to ascertain where to go from here as I used his instructions. I will post the response, if I get one, when I have it.

Martin

7 hours ago, fppilot said:

What exactly is it you are attempting to accomplish?  Understand the path is long.  What are you trying to reach?  The Community folder where add ins go?  The folder where flight plans are stored?   A better understanding would help a lot.

Hi Frank, and thanks for the response. I guess the bottom line is that I prefer to be in control of my own drive space, I'm old school like that. I've got my various shortcuts and links as some have suggested here already set up, I'm just vaguely offended by the way MS and windows insists on putting all sorts of (semi-)undocumented stuff all over my "system" drive. For a long time now it's just been getting worse - all the various config files for applications dumped in the "users" folder makes proper backing up a bit more of a hassle than it should be. You can't just back up an application directory - there might be all sorts of key related files hidden away on C.

 

But I understand this aspect as well --

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

Let's see - the possibility of thousands of xboxers who have never flown a plane or flight sim playing around with easily accessible files and making endless support calls and posts when they screw something up.

Yep, I'd say that would be a good reason to hide things.

Thanks Vic, and yes, I can understand their "mother knows best" point of view. Problem is, it's not always true. Not when mother writes code.

 

1 hour ago, FlyingInACessna said:

Wasn’t exactly hidden... you had the ability to set the MSFS directory when installing the sim.

It gave you an option to select the destination for your Packages folder. I set mine to E:/Microsoft Flight Simulator and now my Community folder is inside of there! Pretty sure if you want to change the location you can just cut / paste the Community / Official folders into their own directory somewhere else, open the sim, and when it asks for an install location, select the new directory.

Well, I may be having a senior moment, but I definitely don't recall being given such an option for choosing a folder at install time. In fact I don't actually remember an install option. I seem to remember having done the pre-install (same thing) I was just told to hit "play" to install the full game. Maybe that is the issue.

 

Anyway, at least it sounds like I'm far from unique in this installation. I'll either try playing with the junction links or just forget all about it and live with it.

Thanks to all for the responses.

Andy, If you had to delete a junction, I used Link Shell Extension, how would you do that? I have nothing to show me where the LinkToFolder is placed, as that would be the obvious solution.

Thanks

Martin

 

7 hours ago, andy1252 said:

I seem to remember having done the pre-install (same thing) I was just told to hit "play" to install the full game. Maybe that is the issue.

Yep! This takes place after hitting play during the full sim install. It says “choose a location for packages folder” and then start download.

15 minutes ago, FlyingInACessna said:

Yep! This takes place after hitting play during the full sim install. It says “choose a location for packages folder” and then start download.

Ah, ok. I suspect I just hit enter, assuming as I'd specified the drive where I'd pre-allocated apace it would go there. Didn't anticipate a ten layer deep folder structure (no exageration - I just checked) - bit excessive even for the MicroSofties. Anyway, as I said, I'll either try moving them and amending the junction links or just live with it. I just like to keep things simple for my backup strategy.

 

6 hours ago, sauviat said:

Andy, If you had to delete a junction, I used Link Shell Extension, how would you do that? I have nothing to show me where the LinkToFolder is placed, as that would be the obvious solution.

Hi Martin, if you want to delete a junction, you just delete it. (del key, or right click - delete). But make sure you're deleting the junction, not the directory it links to!

23 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

Anyway, as I said, I'll either try moving them and amending the junction links or just live with it. I just like to keep things simple for my backup strategy.

I think the easiest solution mentioned above was to create a shortcut to your desktop. Makes it super easy to access.

8 hours ago, sauviat said:

Bert, I have now a Junction for MSFSPackages (remember I have the boxed install and completely different to MS and Steam) from my C Drive to my D Drive. But... when I populate the Community folder on D it also populates the Community folder on C. Hence it is taking up space on both drives:(

I have written to the learned author of the Geek item about this Link Shell business to ascertain where to go from here as I used his instructions. I will post the response, if I get one, when I have it.

Martin

I am looking at the same thing, but not sure if the C drive folder content is "real" or "virtual"..

It may well be that File Explorer follows the link and shows you the D drive content.

11 hours ago, FlyingInACessna said:

Wasn’t exactly hidden... you had the ability to set the MSFS directory when installing the sim.

 

It gave you an option to select the destination for your Packages folder. I set mine to E:/Microsoft Flight Simulator and now my Community folder is inside of there! Pretty sure if you want to change the location you can just cut / paste the Community / Official folders into their own directory somewhere else, open the sim, and when it asks for an install location, select the new directory.

Correct..  although I guess it would be easy to miss the  "where do you want to install this"..   mine is simply  H:/MSFS  and everything is in there apart from the one small folder on C..  but then I hate installing anything on C and always look VERY closely at all install screens to stop things slipping past 🙂

 

Graham

Edited September 14, 20205 yr by Moria15

Have written a long text to zendesk, because I uninstalled MSFS with the uninstaller and now cannot reinstall!!!

Trying to install and the MS Store opens ans says I am already installed. It is likely that the MSFS uninstaller left fragments behind:(

 

Zendesk have acknowledged  with a case number. Let's wait and see. Back to FSX in the meantime!

 

Martin

1 hour ago, Bert Pieke said:

I am looking at the same thing, but not sure if the C drive folder content is "real" or "virtual"..

It may well be that File Explorer follows the link and shows you the D drive content.

I played around with that last night. The actual data is on my F drive but all the links are on C. There is relatively little data there.

Vic

22 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

I played around with that last night. The actual data is on my F drive but all the links are on C. There is relatively little data there.

Vic

Same here... but File Explorer makes it look as if the data is on the C drive as well.

Tricky!

Could someone please explain to a lay person why this file structure is the way it is? Please. Shot gun blasted all over the computer.

Edited September 14, 20205 yr by Adrian123

8 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

Could someone please explain to a lay person why this file structure is the way it is? Please. Shot gun blasted all over the computer.

Simple.. Microsoft designed it this way.

Tinker with it at your peril 😉