For me, the housekeeping is as much fun as the sim itself. 

Not only do I spend time looking for and installing and updating add-ons, I also relentlessly catalogue everything.

I have my own Google maps with customised icons representing the different types of add-on sceneries:

I know the add-on organiser tools can generate these maps themselves, but I like having my own database of entries and my own icons/colour-coding since it helps me to visualise and plan my flights better.

On 1/25/2022 at 7:34 PM, Nemo said:

How do you handle it?

I think there's a few ways you can deal with this:

• You can just deal with it and crack on as I think most of us do 😂
• Stick to only 1 'marketplace' whether that be Orbx Central, Contrail, AS1, SimMarket etc
• Don't download any 3rd party content at all (yeah right 😁)
• Save all your money and just use a single site like flightsim.to, things like MSFS Community Downloader and windsailor can help with that

My approach personally it a mixture, I use various different marketplaces and various different freeware sources but what I try to do is avoid buying anything that cannot be updated or downloaded directly through one of the marketplaces. That being said, I generally avoid the in-sim marketplace due to the update lag. 

On 1/25/2022 at 3:29 PM, Kaboki said:

When I moved to MSFS from XP i decided this time Im gonna keep it clean. So no freeware for me, its to time consuming to check for updates and all those annoying libraries that comes with them(except the HN shipping AI, its a must have)

There is a very easy way to check for updates to add-ons you have installed. The website flightsim.to has a great feature that keeps track of all your add-ons, lets you know when they have been updated, and gives you a direct link to the update. This eliminates any need to go searching, and saves a lot of time and effort.

9 minutes ago, cobalt said:

There is a very easy way to check for updates to add-ons you have installed. The website flightsim.to has a great feature that keeps track of all your add-ons, lets you know when they have been updated, and gives you a direct link to the update. This eliminates any need to go searching, and saves a lot of time and effort.

Ah didnt know, thanks for the tip, anyway, hate all those libraries clutter my communety folder and like to keep it as clean as possible. E.g, downloaded a single airport(my home airport), it had dependency on 6 libraries, just for 1 single airport, god...

Having just Orbx central and contrail is good enough for me and just so simple to keep track of what i have installed and update.

But each to he's own, those freeware available is really good, but just to inconvinient for me personally.

Just one more thought: Using Add-on Linker (flightsim.to, an amazing free app), you can have an empty Community folder and place in it only links to add-on files that you need for a particular flying session. Your add-on files can be stored anywhere you want, outside MSFS entirely. For many MSFS users this has become an indispensable tool. 

Edited January 27, 20224 yr by cobalt