Is reinstalling, MSFS, Windows a solution ?

[Dominique_K 10,152]

I am always dubitative when I see fellow simmers recommending or doing a reinstall of the sim or, Heavens forbid, of Windows to cure a mysterious MSFS problem. 

I don't say they are wrong but don't remember having ever had to do either of them in all these years I've been simming with Asobo's baby or any of its predecessors.

 I would be cautious before following this trail, specially these days with the huge downloads it carries.

[Paladin2005 443]

And whats your problem now?

[CFIJose 5,485]

Sometimes a full re-install is the only way to go. The simmer can save some time downloading if they back up their OneStore folder.

[Dominique_K 10,152]

20 minutes ago, Paladin2005 said:

And whats your problem now?

None 

[tamsini 278]

I had had multiple CTD's over December and January - I tried multiple solutions (delete all mods, reinstall older graphics drivers etc). Nothing worked and though I hesitated, I decided to do a clean install of MSFS (full redownload). Upon starting MSFS and loading a default plane on a default airports, CTD. This to say this in not ALWAYS the solution. I have since seemed to have cured the CTDs with the latest MSFS build and newest nvidia driver.

All this to say that there is no one solution for any given user - there are too many variables to work with. But I think the key is to try one thing at a time and keep plugging away.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

If your talking World Peace or Global Warming probably not.

If you mean MSFS issues, possibly will help with some issues, though there may be less drastic solutions if you try hard enough.

[St Mawgan 1,405]

Never had to reinstall MSFS and not had to reinstall Windows since the late 90's. In those days though it really was a cure all or, you were like me and did it for fun on a wet Sunday afternoon. 

[Ixoye 1,837]

I had to reinstall Windows once to solve a severe stuttering problem, nothing else worked, believe me I tried everything, the problem started after i had a power outage during a MFSF update, probably something in windows got corrupted.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Ixoye

[Dominique_K 10,152]

8 minutes ago, Ixoye said:

I had to reinstall Windows once to solve a severe stuttering problem, nothing else worked, believe me I tried everything, the problem started after i had a power outage during a MFSF update, probably something in windows got corrupted.

It may be an ultimate solution. But to systematically advise a reinstall as some do is a disservice to a fellow simmer neck high in muddy water.

[AnkH 2,282]

It is not recommended as a «solution», but as one of the ways to start off from zero to find the root cause of the issue. I do not get why this seems so difficult to understand?

As long as you stick to a potential setup full of garbage accumulated over time, it is by magnitudes more difficult to solve the issue. With a total fresh setup, you can then first check true default and then add your addons one by one or in blocks of ten e.g. to find the culprit. 

That is basically all about reinstalling Windows and MSFS.

[Dominique_K 10,152]

11 minutes ago, AnkH said:

do not get why this seems so difficult to understand?

certainly because I am not as smart as you are 🤣

[AnkH 2,282]

9 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

certainly because I am not as smart as you are 🤣

No further comment needed...

[Dominique_K 10,152]

2 minutes ago, AnkH said:

No further comment needed...

🤣

[jetlag 65]

Creating system restore points at regular intervals might be a less drastic solution for those users who are thinking of reinstalling windows.

This saved my b*m recently for an issue totally unrelated to MSFS.

[kerosene31 349]

I've reinstalled MSFS quite a few times when I was dealing with frequent CTDs.  I've got pretty fast internet and I can just let it go overnight.  Can I say that it fixed anything?  II can't say either way.  I went through some terrible crashing (as many have) and reinstalling seemed to reduce them a little?  But it is hard to draw conclusions from random crashes.  It could totally be a placebo.

It is "easy" to do, assuming you can let your PC sit and download much of the day.  Settings are stored in the cloud (I take screenshots just in case) and the community folder is fairly easy to back up. 

I've finally not had many crashes lately so I've left it alone. 

Windows?  I'd never reinstall Windows unless everything on my system was crashing and I'd tried everything else.  Way back in the day of Win 95, installs would just go bad over time.  I have honestly not seen that in 10/11.  Update your drivers and if there's still problems, it is probably hardware (or the new drivers are bad). 

What I found with my CTDs is they suddenly started appearing after a major sim update, and magically went away after another.