I just want to say that the installation mechanism is PREPOSTEROUS for this sim. Never in my life have I seen a more convoluted mess with the folder structures and the security permissions that Asobo uses to install this thing. Want to install to a specific folder on a different drive? Forget it, it installs to those ridiculous WindowsApps and WPSystem folders and creates links to different folders somewhere else. Want to copy and make backups of those folders? Forget it. The security they put on these folders is like nothing I've ever seen. Take ownership and full control yet there is still no way to copy the folders off to a different drive. I lost my mian C drive and had to reinstall my OS but my games drive was still fine. I was unable to copy files from one folder to another. I was unable to delete the folders later and finally managed to delete them only to have them zombify in the $recycle.bin folder and become stuck there using up 100GB of space. I mean come on man! Why not just be able to install to X:\FS2020 or some other name like any other game and then just copy and backup files at will like a normal game?? Whoever designed this system should be fired. Immediately. As should whoever approved it to be released like this. /Rant.

I also lost my C drive and ended up uninstalling MSFS and then reinstalling everything from scratch..

Next time (if there is one) I will attempt to copy or move the LocalCache\Packages folder to somewhere safe before reinstall and attempt to reuse the contents.. that is the bulk of the files.

Edited April 10, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

I agree. I have been a flight sim user since 1983 and have purchased every version that MS came out with, as well as P3D and have never had so much trouble finding things. If and when I find a specific item, I create a Desktop Shortcut and name it with a sensible name so that I can go back and find it again. Even the in game menu items are strange to me and are hard to use.

I managed to get mine on its own dedicated SSD. You have to change the default MS Store install location before you download and install it. This does have the caveat of meaning that everything from the MS Store gets installed on that drive but I don't really use the Store for anything else and most other apps are tiny.

I think the thing to bear in mind with MSFS is that by design like with most modern software it's provided as a service, you don't own it. You just have a license to use it. Therefore it's folder structure and where its physically located is not meant to be relevant to the user.

This is what is called twisting the purchaser of a program into a pretzel so the couple of people that will try and steal the program will have a harder time of it. 

7 hours ago, J0nx said:

I just want to say that the installation mechanism is PREPOSTEROUS for this sim. Never in my life have I seen a more convoluted mess with the folder structures and the security permissions that Asobo uses to install this thing. Want to install to a specific folder on a different drive? Forget it, it installs to those ridiculous WindowsApps and WPSystem folders and creates links to different folders somewhere else. Want to copy and make backups of those folders? Forget it. The security they put on these folders is like nothing I've ever seen. Take ownership and full control yet there is still no way to copy the folders off to a different drive. I lost my mian C drive and had to reinstall my OS but my games drive was still fine. I was unable to copy files from one folder to another. I was unable to delete the folders later and finally managed to delete them only to have them zombify in the $recycle.bin folder and become stuck there using up 100GB of space. I mean come on man! Why not just be able to install to X:\FS2020 or some other name like any other game and then just copy and backup files at will like a normal game?? Whoever designed this system should be fired. Immediately. As should whoever approved it to be released like this. /Rant.

Only fix i found was to copy the backup files to where theyre safe and uninstall F2020 then use mini partition wizard to delete the backup drive partition reboot after and run the wizard again and recreate the partition and copy back the files to the backup drive and reinstall the 1.5gigs then when asked by the installer point to the backup drive where the FS2020 folder resides and no more windowsapps WPSystem folders on the backup drive only now residing on the c drive and installer (1.5 gigs) then the main folder on the other drive. Don't know if this can help anyone with store version and the 2 prevalent folder issue.

Edited April 11, 20215 yr by 40track

Well my whole point is that you CAN'T copy the folders to another drive. The OS prevents you from doing that so you are forced to download and reinstall everything from scratch again. It even prevents me from copying things from the communtiy folder out to any other drive. I had to delete them first and then drag them from the recycle bin to the drive where I wanted to keep them. The entire installation and folder structure of this product is just absurd. Not sure if the steam version is this way but the MS Store version is an outrage.

I have mine installed on M:\MSFS2020 and I am able to copy this entire folder elsewhere.  I have only needed to do a reinstall once and after downloading the core files ie to C:\ I then tell it to install to M:\MSFS2020 where I have restored the original from the "copy" area.  No problems so far and I also take a backup of disks C and M -so far, touch wood, I have been able to avoid the total reinstall.  BR

M.