Long story short, end of month I will have to wipe W11 and reinstall it due to switching from Intel to AMD. I have the Steam version which is on same drive as OS so both the Steam application and MSFS will be wiped as well. Thankfully most of my 3rd party stuff that is installed into MSFS is on another drive and linked with Addon Linker. Has anyone gone through this and is there any pre-wipe steps you would recommend that will save time when it comes time to reinstall everything which for sure, I am not looking forward to. I have all my ancillary programs such as AAO, StreamDeck, TrackIR, etc... on this drive and they are all going to get wiped. With the Steam program also being wiped, will all my controller profiles in MSFS be there when I reinstall everything? Thanks in advance.

10 minutes ago, B777ER said:

will all my controller profiles in MSFS be there when I reinstall everything?

I can’t answer most of your questions but I have uninstalled (wiped clean) MSFS on more than one occasion. My experience was my controller profiles are cloud based and were restored from my cloud profile. So I’m 97% sure the answer here is yes. 
-B

Edited April 7, 20233 yr by btacon

36 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Long story short, end of month I will have to wipe W11 and reinstall it due to switching from Intel to AMD. I have the Steam version which is on same drive as OS so both the Steam application and MSFS will be wiped as well. Thankfully most of my 3rd party stuff that is installed into MSFS is on another drive and linked with Addon Linker. Has anyone gone through this and is there any pre-wipe steps you would recommend that will save time when it comes time to reinstall everything which for sure, I am not looking forward to. I have all my ancillary programs such as AAO, StreamDeck, TrackIR, etc... on this drive and they are all going to get wiped. With the Steam program also being wiped, will all my controller profiles in MSFS be there when I reinstall everything? Thanks in advance.

I was wondering why switching CPU requires reinstalling the OS, is that typical? 

AAO has an export function, and corresponding import function. However, with new OS comes new hardware detection and new USB GUIDs. AAO has a function to map the GUIDs in the old profiles to new ones just detected.

PS. When doing an OS install, I usually copy my current Windows user profile to external drive or thumb drive for future reference.

 

Edited April 7, 20233 yr by hs118

After re-installing windows and re-installing the simulator, all configured control profiles will still be there as they are stored in the "cloud".

Don't forget about your camera definition files for all favorite aircraft. Otherwise you will have to manually re-setup all your camera views per aircraft.

In my setup (Steam version), the path to the camera definition files are located here: "C:\users\YourProfileName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\SimObjects\Airplanes"

Each airplane will have it's own folder. You want to backup camera.cfg.

35 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I was wondering why switching CPU requires reinstalling the OS, is that typical? 

When switching from Team Blue to Team Red (or vice versa), probably a good idea.

1 hour ago, B777ER said:

Long story short, end of month I will have to wipe W11 and reinstall it due to switching from Intel to AMD. I have the Steam version which is on same drive as OS so both the Steam application and MSFS will be wiped as well. Thankfully most of my 3rd party stuff that is installed into MSFS is on another drive and linked with Addon Linker. Has anyone gone through this and is there any pre-wipe steps you would recommend that will save time when it comes time to reinstall everything which for sure, I am not looking forward to. I have all my ancillary programs such as AAO, StreamDeck, TrackIR, etc... on this drive and they are all going to get wiped. With the Steam program also being wiped, will all my controller profiles in MSFS be there when I reinstall everything? Thanks in advance.

When I built my PC in the Fall I followed this procedure and it worked flawlessly:

1) Move the community and official folders to another folder (preferable on the same SSD, that'll be quicker). 

2) Delete MSFS from either Steam menu or Microsoft store. 

3) Move the community and official folders back to where you want the sim installed (I've got it set for D:\MSFS).

This is where you would re install Windows and other software you need (I also made a checklist of what I needed to install)

4) Reinstall MSFS. Important: Choose the folder where you've got the community and official folders. Installing the sim from should only be ~1Gb.

5) When starting the sim for the first time, it might ask for a folder to install some updates. Choose the folder that you installed the sim to. It will do some syncing during first load, but once you reach the main menu, everything should be there. 

Graphics settings might have to be adjusted (Take screenshots of all your settings and store them on another drive), like choosing full screen etc, but all the controller settings is linked to your Xbox account. 

If you're using Addons linker keep in mind that the settings (presets etc) are stored here: C:\ProgramData\MSFS Addons Linker, make sure you backup that folder as well and restore it when you reinstall Addon Linker. If you do not do this you will have to setup Addon Linker again from scratch.

Edited April 7, 20233 yr by RJC68

55 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I was wondering why switching CPU requires reinstalling the OS, is that typical? 

Switching CPU's means switching motherboards which means all the installed chipset drivers in W11 will not work. Chances are system won't even boot into W11.

1 hour ago, B777ER said:

Long story short, end of month I will have to wipe W11 and reinstall it due to switching from Intel to AMD.

No, you don't.

 

21 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Switching CPU's means switching motherboards which means all the installed chipset drivers in W11 will not work. Chances are system won't even boot into W11.

Simply not true. Modern operating systems adapt directly to any hardware change. I did exactly that change half a year before MSFS came out, did my research, found out that even Motherboards are simple plug and play.

No reinstallation needed, whatsoever.

 

So don't waste your time with a wipe and reinstallation. It's not required. 

Edited April 7, 20233 yr by Farlis

Just hopping on here to see the end result. Crazy difference of opinion. I’d be inclined to take the Farlis flight path for starters.

1 hour ago, RJC68 said:

When I built my PC in the Fall I followed this procedure and it worked flawlessly:

1) Move the community and official folders to another folder (preferable on the same SSD, that'll be quicker). 

2) Delete MSFS from either Steam menu or Microsoft store. 

3) Move the community and official folders back to where you want the sim installed (I've got it set for D:\MSFS).

This is where you would re install Windows and other software you need (I also made a checklist of what I needed to install)

4) Reinstall MSFS. Important: Choose the folder where you've got the community and official folders. Installing the sim from should only be ~1Gb.

5) When starting the sim for the first time, it might ask for a folder to install some updates. Choose the folder that you installed the sim to. It will do some syncing during first load, but once you reach the main menu, everything should be there. 

Graphics settings might have to be adjusted (Take screenshots of all your settings and store them on another drive), like choosing full screen etc, but all the controller settings is linked to your Xbox account. 

If you're using Addons linker keep in mind that the settings (presets etc) are stored here: C:\ProgramData\MSFS Addons Linker, make sure you backup that folder as well and restore it when you reinstall Addon Linker. If you do not do this you will have to setup Addon Linker again from scratch.

Thank you very much for this.

1 hour ago, Farlis said:

No, you don't.

 

Simply not true. Modern operating systems adapt directly to any hardware change. I did exactly that change half a year before MSFS came out, did my research, found out that even Motherboards are simple plug and play.

No reinstallation needed, whatsoever.

 

So don't waste your time with a wipe and reinstallation. It's not required. 

Yea, I am having an upgrade by a highly reputable computer company that knows their way around computer and flightsim as well. They are for sure saying a wipe needs to be done so I don’t run into issues later. There is no way I want to get home with it and start having BSOD’s so I’m going with their plan of action. 

Edited April 8, 20233 yr by B777ER

7 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Yea, I am having an upgrade by a highly reputable computer company that knows there way around computer and flightsim as well. They are for sure saying a wipe needs to be done so I don’t run into issues later. There is no way I want to get home with it and start having BSOD’s so I’m going with their plan of action. 

Yes, gotcha! Farlis did the swap before MSFS came out, so not an exact replica of your situation. You may be fine with a straight plug and play, but the computer company is starting with a clean slate, to avoid any glitches that may show up down the road 👍

I swapped from a 9700k to a 5800x3d last month and didn't wipe initially. Performance wasn't great and I had some crashes. Wiped and reinstalled from scratch and it's been perfect.

 

15 minutes ago, Bigbluss said:

I swapped from a 9700k to a 5800x3d last month and didn't wipe initially. Performance wasn't great and I had some crashes. Wiped and reinstalled from scratch and it's been perfect.

 

This is why we are wiping.