Hello simmers,

I'm planning on upgrading my 10 year old pc with a new i7 12700KF with 32gb ram and new Asus mobo. Any suggestions on how-to get around the process of having to install the whole sim again?

On the initial install I selected the E: drive (SSD) as the MS2020 folder, the rest (sim core files I suppose) were installed on my Windows drive, haven't had any issues with this setup and FS2020 is quite stable.

Also, any thoughts on Win11 or should I stay on Win10 for now.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Carlos

 

Edited December 1, 20214 yr by CarlosF

22 minutes ago, CarlosF said:

On the initial install I selected the E: drive (SSD) as the MS2020 folder, the rest (sim core files I suppose) were installed on my Windows drive, haven't had any issues with this setup and FS2020 is quite stable.

As best I know, you can plug this E drive SSD into the new system, and when installing MSFS, it will offer up a location for the "Packages" folder when checking for updates. If you enter the location for the Packages folder on the E drive, MSFS will find the content and you will not have to download it a second time.

12th gen intel runs best on Windows 11 full stop. The scheduler in windows 11 is built to accomodate it.

As for moving the sim.. why would you want to try to botch move an existing installation to a brand new system? To me that's asking for trouble.. Fresh install .. to ensure you aren't transferring any issues. with your old install.

Edited December 1, 20214 yr by Maxis

41 minutes ago, Maxis said:

Fresh install .. to ensure you aren't transferring any issues

Absolutely positively.  Dunno how Steam works w/ addons but if w/in MSFS reinstalling the entire app w/ Marketplace purchased addons is easy as pie, but of course takes time, just very little thought and attention.

Carlos...

A new CPU, motherboard and RAM may require a re-install of Windows.  If you can get away with just hooking up the Windows drive from your previous system, you might be able to get Windows to re-write your new hardware information into the Windows ID.  Or, you may have to call Microsoft and explain you have new hardware - since the Operating System keeps the records of your motherboard, CPU and memory in your MS Account.

But for MSFS, all you need to get your re-install is go the the log-in to your Microsoft account and go to the Microsoft Store.  You should be able to re-download the entire application with no problem.  It will even ask you where to install.

I was close to open a related topic.

I understood that a fresh SIM install will be the most safe option. Do I need to uninstall/deactivate it on my old PC first? How can I keep my controller settings? I have all Community add-ons already at a safe place, So I can add them later step by step.

Remains the question about Windows 11 itself. I have a valid purchased Win10 Pro license (with activation key) which seems to be connected to my MS account. Can I simply install Windows 11 on my new PC and activate it with my key or do I need some deactivation process on my old PC before? I checkeed via Google but as usual, there are different opinions about this. Maybe someone here can give me a good advice?

Any other precautions to be considered?

Edited December 2, 20214 yr by Nemo

11 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

As best I know, you can plug this E drive SSD into the new system, and when installing MSFS, it will offer up a location for the "Packages" folder when checking for updates. If you enter the location for the Packages folder on the E drive, MSFS will find the content and you will not have to download it a second time.

Hi

I had my MSFS on an E drive in my old PC (i5 4690). I was running a non OEM version of WIn10 Pro - and this is crucial. It won't work if your copy of Windows is OEM - i.e. it came with your old computer and you didn't buy a bona fide new copy from Microsoft or similar.

In my case I had my own full copy of Windows. I was able to just swap out C (Windows) and E (MSFS) drive and just plug and play onto a new i7 11700k, ASUS Z590 board and new memory. I'm still using my GTX1080 ti for obvious reasons.

It all ran straight out of the box, no reinstallation. Just a couple of other programs needed updating but that's it. Well worth it.

Good luck with it all - you'll love it.

 

ray

 

Don't copy MSFS! Do a clean new install and just copy addons over!

Which video card?

I just upgraded from an AMD 6700 xt to RTX 3080 Ti. Expensive but Worth it.

If you have the spare change you might consider picking up at least one, better two, m.2 NVMe drives.  I did this last year, two 2Tb drives, and their read speed is almost 3000mb/sec, and access time is 0.06ms.  I see absolutely no reason to put OS and sim on separate drives anymore as I used to do in the past.  The cool part is once the Win10/11 is installed w/ MSFS and all else, it's a simple matter to make a clone if you buy two identical drives and you're up and running in 5 min in the event of catastrophic failure, or you can even do a dual boot in which case you're up and running in...60 seconds.

14 hours ago, michaelst7 said:

A new CPU, motherboard and RAM may require a re-install of Windows. 

Of course, it will be a fresh install in the case of windows, I just don't want to go through a fresh install of the sim as it works great and stable. 

Thanks guys for all your suggestions, I guess the safest way is to just do a fresh install of FS2020.

 

29 minutes ago, Greazer said:

Which video card?

Asus 1070, works great with most settings on ultra, too expensive to replace, will wait until next year, hopefully prices will drop.

Carlos...

I did pretty much the same thing this past summer, new MB, CPU, Memory and m.2 drive.  Installed a new version of Windows 10.  When I logged into my Microsoft account, Windows realized it was a different PC, but it retained all my MicroSoft Store purchases, so all thats required is to download and install.  If you kept your old PC, it will remain active on that one too, but you can only use the sim on one PC at a time.

 

Good luck and enjoy your new PC...

 

m.2 NVMe actual performance on my system.  Note Ave Read Access, CPU%, and read rates.  SATA III SSD does around 580MB/s

20 minutes ago, CarlosF said:

Thanks guys for all your suggestions, I guess the safest way is to just do a fresh install of FS2020.

 

a fresh install is not without its perils either! if your current install is good then...

I think you can only get away with reinstalling the msfs client only (the exe that steam uses to begin the loading of the game), then pointing that to the packages folder as has been suggested, if you use Steam version msfs.

I just recently reinstalled my OS and the msfs client only with no problems.