How to install Microsoft Flight Simulator
Installing Microsoft Flight Simulator requires a Microsoft account or Xbox account and its password. If you don't have an account yet, please prepare one in advance.Additionally, Microsoft Flight Simulator has a storage capacity of 150GB, and if you include free optional content, it will be about 300GB. It takes about 12 hours to download the data, and installation can take an entire day. As long as you have completed the purchase procedure, you can install it later. Please install it when you have plenty of time.
Get started with Microsoft account (Microsoft)
Account with Xbox (Microsoft)
このページを日本語で見る
Contents
- How to purchase Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Check your computer's network/sleep settings
- Download the game main module
- Warning when starting the game
- Sign in
- Download game data
- How to exit the game
- How to launch the game
- Game won't start!?/It stalls!? How to force quit and restart
- How to set up Microsoft Flight Simulator
How to purchase Microsoft Flight Simulator
First, complete the purchase procedure.Check your computer's network/sleep settings
If the internet is disconnected during installation, the installation may fail. I recommend connecting with a LAN cable rather than Wi-Fi.
Also, be careful not to let your computer turn off or go into sleep mode while downloading. Don't run your computer on battery power; connect it to an outlet using an AC adapter or something similar. Then open the Windows [Start]-[Settings]-[System]-[Power & Battery]-[Display and Sleep] screen (see right) and set "Sleep when connected to power" to "Never."
Download the game main module
If you purchased the game through Steam, you can install the Steam app on multiple computers and log in with your ID to install the same game on all of them. However, you can only play the game on one computer at a time.
When you start the same game on multiple computers at the same time, it becomes streaming (remote) play. The first computer to start the game becomes the server, and subsequent computers connect to it to play. The game screen of the server computer will be displayed on all computers.
If you're installing on a second or subsequent computer, click the "▼" button to the right of "Streaming" on this screen. Then select "This computer" to install.
If you want to play on multiple computers at the same time, you will need to prepare multiple Steam accounts and make a purchase for each account. You can also play by streaming (remote) from another computer.
Steam Support :: Steam Account Use
Steam Family Sharing
Then click the "Install" button at the bottom of the screen.
By the way, the huge 150GB of game data will start downloading after a few more steps.
Warning when starting the game
If you enter the 4-digit passcode displayed on this screen onto the computer screen where the game is already running, you will be connected remotely.
If you want to start MSFS on this computer, please shut down MSFS on the other computer.
For the minimum MSFS requirements, please see the following page:
Can you enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator without a GPU? What are the minimum requirements?
Sign in
I will introduce some useful settings that you should make first.
Download game data
Three buttons are lined up on the screen: "STANDARD CONTENT", "DELUXE UPGRADE", and "PREMIUM UPGRADE". These correspond to three editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Choose which to download.
"STANDARD CONTENT" is a must-download item.
If you have purchased the PREMIUM version, all buttons will be checked at the bottom right. You can also shorten the download time by unchecking "DELUXE UPGRADE" and "PREMIUM UPGRADE".
Change destination folder
The bottom of this screen shows the folder where the data will be saved. By default, the save destination is C drive (C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator). Also, in the example in this image, an error message appears because there is insufficient space on the installation destination.
The minimum required storage capacity for Microsoft Flight Simulator is 150GB, and if you include free optional content, it will be about 300GB. Furthermore, if you install free content developed by users, it will consume about 500GB in no time. Install on a disk with sufficient capacity, preferably 1TB or more.
You can change the save destination folder name by clicking on it. Create a folder with a name such as "msfs2020" on a large-capacity disk and specify it there.
If you monitor the remaining capacity of the target drive in Explorer, you can check the specific downloaded capacity.
Please be careful not to shut down/sleep your computer or close the download screen while downloading.
About 7 hours after the download started, the screen finally changed. Even in this state, the download continues in the background.
This screen is a selection of graphic drawing quality. You can choose from four levels: [LOW-END], [MEDIUM], [HIGH-END], and [ULTRA], and the later options allow you to enjoy higher-definition graphics. However, you will need a high-performance computer. Here, the recommended quality is selected based on your computer's specifications.
This setting can be changed later on the game settings screen: [OPTIONS]-[GENERAL OPTIONS]-[GRAPHICS]-[GLOBAL RENDERING QUALITY].
Once selected, click [NEXT].
Next, choose whether or not to use satellite photos to draw the scene.
If you select [SATELLITE DATA STREAMING], the game screen will be drawn while downloading satellite images from the internet. A more realistic scene is drawn, but there is a lot of network communication.
If you select [NO WORLD STREAMING], satellite images will not be downloaded. Select this if you want to play in an environment where the internet is slow.
This setting can be changed later on the game settings screen: [OPTIONS]-[GENERAL OPTIONS]-[DATA]-[BING DATA WORLD GRAPHICS] and [PHOTOGRAMMETRY].
Once selected, click [NEXT].
If there are no problems, click [NEXT].
Next, let's check the controller used for gameplay. A list of controllers connected to your computer is displayed. Devices displayed here will have default key assignments. If you want to customize the key assignment, click [CUSTOMIZE].
This setting can be changed later on the game settings screen: [OPTIONS]-[CONTROLS OPTIONS].
If there are no problems, click [NEXT].
Attention: If more than one device of the same type is detected on this screen, the device may not work properly. (Game controller in this example) In such a case, delete all key assignments for devices that are not used for operation. Details will be explained later.
Next, let's set up computer assistance for things like maneuvering. By default, all items are set to [EASY]. You can also switch to [MIDDLE-GROUND] or [TRUE TO LIFE] by clicking [<] or [>] on the left and right of [ALL ASSISTS] at the top of the screen. Please change it as you like.
If you select [ALL ASSISTS], even beginners can easily operate a jet airliner.
This setting can be changed later on the game settings screen: [OPTIONS]-[ASSISTANCE OPTIONS].
After setting, click [DONE].
Next is the option to update the game data. Click [INSTALL] to update to the latest data.
As a workaround, close the game by clicking the [x] in the top right corner of the screen, press the "Stop" button in the Steam app, and then click the "Play" button in the Steam app again. The installation then resumed and proceeded to the next screen.
How to exit the game
How to launch the game
Game won't start!?/It stalls!? How to force quit and restart
It takes about 5 minutes for MSFS to start up. If it doesn't start up after waiting 10 minutes, try forcibly closing MSFS and starting the game again.