I have a question about exactly how the MS store works with MSFS. Right now, I'm having a new computer built by a company that specializes in flight sim hardware. This company will be using my Microsoft store account to download and install and fine-tune MSFS for my new machine. Here's my question: Should I go ahead and delete MSFS from my current, old computer? I'm guessing that some sort of piracy protection prevents people from installing TWO copies of MSFS from the same account to TWO different machines. How does this work?

Just out of curiosity, I copied my question above and pasted it into the Microsoft ChatGPT AI bot. Here's what it produced instantly for me. That thing is truly amazing:

"Microsoft Store uses a digital rights management (DRM) system to protect the content that is purchased through the store. When you purchase a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) from the Microsoft Store, it is tied to your Microsoft account, which you use to download and install the game. You can install the game on multiple devices, but you can only be signed into the Microsoft Store with one device at a time, as this would be considered as "two copies".

So, if you install MSFS on your new computer using the same Microsoft account that was used to install the game on your old computer, the DRM system would detect that you are trying to install two copies of the game on two different devices using the same account, which would result in a violation of the game's license agreement.

In order to avoid this, you should delete the MSFS game from your old computer before installing it on your new computer, or use a different Microsoft account to install the game on your new computer."

that's exactly what I was going to recommend, but thanks for referring to Microsoft ChatGPT AI bot. have never used it yet, but the answer was spot on:

"Just sign in and play. The license is tied to your account not the PC"

 

Amazing, but not necessarily accurate. My understanding is that you may have multiple simultaneous installations on your PCs provided you only play on one machine at a time. I recently completed a new PC and installed MSFS plus store purchases on it and was glad to have my previous install intact for reference while setting up and configuring my new system. 

I had installed MSFS on several (three) computers without issues. I did not uninstall the other versions as it was just for testing whether some issues I had were hardware related. I don't remember whether I logged out of the MS store. I doubt it is a problem unless you are running MSFS on more than one computer at the same time.

But giving your MS Store credentials to someone else... I don't think that is wise. Especially if it's your Microsoft account that is also used for other stuff. You could give someone access to your online data this way.

Also, while the Microsoft service agreement doesn't excactly forbids it it states that "You cannot transfer your Microsoft account credentials to another user or entity. To protect your account, keep your account details and password confidential. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your Microsoft account."

ChatGPT really is fantastic. But it does make clear-cut factual errors sometimes. I got into a rather heated argument with ChatGPT a couple of days ago. I asked ChatGPT the current location of a certain article of clothing that Loretta Lynn stated -- on camera -- that she wore for years after being given this article of clothing by Patsy Cline, who also wore this article of clothing for years before that. In addition to this on-camera interview of Loretta herself confirming the story, I had personally seen this article of clothing displayed some years ago in the Loretta Lynn Museum in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee (before the display was deemed to be in poor taste). But, no. ChatGPT said this was an unconfirmed and irresponsible rumor, not to be taken seriously. I tried to convince ChatGPT of its mistake. It thanked me but continued to dismiss my inquiry as misguided gossip. 

It's common in the modern digital games world to allow installation on more than one machine, with a restriction that only one install can be used at a time.  That's how Steam works, for example.  Thus MS allows MSFS to be installed on more than one machine, and anything bought through the marketplace can similarly be installed on each of those MSFS setups.

 

The same is true for many (non-Marketplace) third-party addons whose EULA specifies a single-user install, i.e. if you own two machines you are the owner (and single user) you can install on both.  However there are some vendors/devs who insist on a single-PC install, so you'd have to choose the machine on which to install their products.  In which case the solution is to buy their products from the marketplace and swallow the down-sides of that.

 

In my recent topsy-turvy life I had MSFS on a home machine and a gaming laptop (for away), and I've been careful to buy in a way that's multi-PC legal.  Unfortunately this means sometimes having to buy on the marketplace, e.g. Orbx Central is single-PC but Orbx products from the Marketplace can be installed on each MSFS setup you own.  Thus I've not yet bought a single MSFS product direct from Orbx, whereas I once owned "all of Orbx" on P3D via Orbx Direct.

FWIW I've found single-PC vendors to be the minority - most are happy to allow single-user & multiple-PC use.  The ones to watch out for are those with specific installer apps, as distinct from unzip, drag & drop.  Sometimes I'll email the vendor/dev to clarify and most have replied - I've only been caught out a couple of times by taking a punt.

 

I'd still not recommend giving your MSFS details to anyone else; if they're good at building PCs, it should work well when you install the software yourself.  If you need them to configure peripherals you can get them to do so afterwards, in your presence.

1 hour ago, David Mills said:

This company will be using my Microsoft store account to download and install and fine-tune MSFS for my new machine.

My guess is that this company will ask you not to use MSFS while they are doing this..

Just now, Bert Pieke said:

My guess is that this company will ask you not to use MSFS while they are doing this..

🤣🤣🤣