transferring from Win 10 to 11

[Saucey12]

I'm gonnna get a new PC that will have Windows 11 on it. I currently have Windows 10 with MSFS and all my 500 gb of addons.  Is there any less painful and time consuming way of getting everything over to the new PC and Windows 11?  I have searched and not found a satisfactory solution as most things concern just adding another Drive to the same PC, I get that.  Do the files change with WIndows 11 and require a fresh install of everything again?  

[Bob Scott]

Most payware add-ons generate license keys derived from various hardware component characteristics and/or serial numbers and also store license and config information in the registry.  So just moving the drive over or copying the folders over to the new machine won't work for a great deal of software.

As to MSFS itself, at least with the Steam version, you can run the installer, and when it starts the big download after setting the location of the packages folder, cancel and quit MSFS, and then copy the old packages folder to the new machine, and then run the sim again.  It's best to use the same drive letters and folder names as in the old installation if you do it that way.

Some software needs to be deregistered and/or uninstalled on the old machine before trying to install on the new machine, as licensing data is maintained on external servers...e.g. PMDG aircraft, add-ons installed with iniBuilds Manager etc.  With those titles, you have to free up your license by deregistering/uninstalling before it will allow you to register it on a new machine.  Make sure you do that before taking the old system down.

[pete_auau]

best bet  is  to  start  from  scratch least you know  you will  have  a  clean install,  may  take  a little  longer  but  in  the  long  run  it  might  save  you  time,  in  case  if  something  doesnt  quite  work out

[Saucey12]

I appreciate it guys! This is kinda what I was thinking I just wanted to get some avsim community input.  It'll be a long day of loading it onto new pc! 

[Ray Proudfoot]

On 12/22/2023 at 12:57 AM, Saucey12 said:

It'll be a long day of loading it onto new pc! 

Day? It took me two weeks to install my P3D software onto a new machine. 😉

[Saucey12]

On 1/8/2024 at 3:20 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Day? It took me two weeks to install my P3D software onto a new machine. 😉

Ah Ray I have been away awhile.  Yep I got a new PC with windows 11.  I only reinstalled all my MSFS stuff as I had it on my old machine.  It took about 6 hours total one afternoon.  It helps that many addons in the modern era have apps that can install things youve purchased much faster than manually installing them into the program.  I have right at 1TB of MSFS and MSFS stuff involved in the program.  

[Luis Hernandez]

On 12/21/2023 at 5:55 PM, Bob Scott said:

As to MSFS itself, at least with the Steam version, you can run the installer, and when it starts the big download after setting the location of the packages folder, cancel and quit MSFS, and then copy the old packages folder to the new machine, and then run the sim again.  It's best to use the same drive letters and folder names as in the old installation if you do it that way.

When I had a C: drive failure a couple of years ago, I did the opposite after reinstalling Windows: install Steam, run the MSFS installer, and then point to my existing MSFS folder for "saving" the big download. I think I only had to reinstall the Fenix bus and the Maddog.

For reference, I keep MSFS in another drive, so it wasn't affected by the failure.

Edited June 6, 2024 by Luis Hernandez