Am I running the latest version?

[howardp11]

I run Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition. The Steam updates pages states that updates are applied automatically, there are no outstanding updates and the installed build was last updated on 29 May 2021.
The problem I have is that all the Microsoft Flight Simulator X tutorials, YouTube clips, etc all show menus, features, options, controls, aircraft types that they say come standard, etc that my version does not have or show!!!!
How do I find out which version I am running, how to update to the latest version??

[gspectre]

Without knowing what you are missing, since you gave no specific examples, it's hard to say if what you saw in other versions were versions with add-ons or not.

As for having the latest version, yes you do. I don't know what happened in May but the biggest upgrade was probably in 2006 when it was ported to Steam. There was a "Beta" version that enabled real weather back into FSX and it was also to allow MS to collect data on the users that was probably used in some way in developing their new flight Sim.

For the most part, FSX has not changed.

As for add-ons, there are thousands you can add. Some are freeware and some are payware. In fact, there is so much to add and modify, I'd be surprised if any 2 people have the same exact version of FSX.

In my version, I have hundreds of commercial airliners that fly their own routes, as well as Military Aircraft, all around the world. Some have hundreds of ships, with their own courses. There are add-ons to make trees look better or just the ground or Airport traffic.

As for menus, if you think you are missing any of the default aircraft, I'd suggest looking at the screen where you can pick your Aircraft and see if you have a filter being use. There is a pull down menu where you can tell it to only show certain types of aircraft, or show everyy version of every Aircraft.

[shadowgravy]

FSX was released in 2006 on DVD, and came to Steam around 2014. The Steam version received some code changes to facilitate the Steam platform (including the DLC) and to make it compatible with recent versions of Windows. It also got some performance tweaks. Otherwise FSX Steam Edition is basically the same as the original DVD version of FSX Deluxe with Microsoft's "Acceleration" expansion pack, aka "FSX Gold Edition" from c. 2008.

Check the date on the videos you are watching. I suspect you are finding tutorials for or based on Microsoft's new "Microsoft Flight Simulator" which should be considered as a completely different game from FSX despite the similar name and heritage. The new MSFS was released last year.

[shadowgravy]

If you could share some of the videos in question, that might help us advise.

[gspectre]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

If you could share some of the videos in question, that might help us advise.

I stand corrected. Yes, I should have stated 2014 (when it came to Steam), not 2006 (when it was released).

[JJ FSX]

Using "Windows File Explorer", navigate to the FSX.exe file and simply right click on it and select Properties, then select the Details Tab. The version is shown there. It is also shown in the bottom right corner of the splash screen during startup. It should be 10.0.62615.0.

Except for opting into the beta, since the release of FSX Steam Edition 10.0.62615.0, it has NEVER and will NEVER be...Updated, even though the Steam Client is set to Auto Update it. It's just NEVER going to happen. The facts of the Steam/Dovetail licencing limits under contract stated that they were not allowed to update it past 10.0.62615.0 and Microsoft has never updated it since they bought it back either.....and they have NO PLANS to......and you can't even opt into that beta anymore.

FSX: Steam Edition (FSX-SE) will Always be version 10.0.62615.0 for now and for the foreseeable future. And buyers will need to get a 3rd party weather program free or payware since the old code still tries to use Jeppesen weather who's contract with Microsoft expired years and years ago.

[chaffcutter]

You can try the FSX-beta version to test the ingame weather download - and it appears to work OK. But I found the downloaded weather to be overly simplified with no winds aloft and no pressure/temp layers - so I got rid of the Beta. It is easy to revert back to non beta version.

At the moment I am trialing the FSrealWX 3.0 add-on. It has a 30 day free trail period then costs around 20 pounds. I found out that I also had to download simconnect (free) otherwise the FSrealWX would not connect to my sim. So far it appears to be working quite well.

There is also another add-on option FSXWX 1.6.3 which I nave not yet tested.
https://www.fsxwx.com/instructions-fsxwx.htm
It appears you need FSUIPC 4.90 as a pre-requisite.
Anyone else had any experience with this? - let us know your views. Thanks