Install FSX on Windows 11 SUCCESSFULLY the first try...or the second if your already in trouble.

As time and technology move on, new issues/requirements arise for new users/installers of FSX,
I wrote this guide to help new purchasers get it working "the first time" they install it and perhaps it can help those having issues post installation due to not meeting the security access requirements during the install or perhaps a Windows update that wipes out DX9 again. IF you follow the steps to the letter, you will have a successful install the first try:

HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY INSTALL FSX on Windows 11 &10, new requirements for users of ACTIVE SKY Next & FSUIPC

This information is accurate as of Oct 2024, as always, over time. things may change.

Is FSX crashing after the splash screen after a fresh install? Getting the "side by side configuration" error? Or getting a black screen when you hit fly? Well here are the reasons/solutions and how to get a successful advanced install THE FIRST TRY!

The first two issues are due to the STEAM CLIENT (Steam.exe) not running as administrator DURING the install.......EVEN IF THE USER RUNNING the STEAM CLIENT during the install IS an ADMINISTRATOR of the local PC!

So....assuming a good install of Windows 10 or 11 and Steam, and that your Windows user account has administrator rights as you install FSX do the following steps:

1. Shutdown your STEAM Client. (With Steam open, from the menu bar select, Steam, then select Exit Steam). Steam must not be running for steps 2 and 3 and step 4 restarts it.

2. Find "Steam.exe" (usually in the "c:\program files (x86)\Steam" folder by default)

3. Right click on and select Properties of "Steam.exe", then click on the "Compatibility Tab" and check the "Run as Administrator" checkbox then click OK.

4. Now restart the Steam Client and it will "complain/warn" that it's being run in compatibility mode but allows you to continue with option to not be warned again. Continue but don't suppress the warning so you'll be reminded to turn this off later, it's only needed during the install of FSX to insure STEAM has administrative rights during the install. Now step 5...

5. Install FSX (DON"T INCLUDE any DLC at first, (uncheck boxes in STEAM) AND DONT RUN IT YET! Right After the install is complete do the following to get ahead of the second problem you will have if you don't deal with it up front.......

The third issue (black screen on first flight) is because of Win10 and Win11 deprecating DX9 (no longer included in the OS by default). So....

6. Run DXSETUP from the Steamworks Shared DirectX folder and it will either install DX9 (and any other missing components) or it will tell you it doesn't need to be installed. The full path to DXSetup.exe is:

(C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_commonRedist\DirectX\June2010\DXSetup.exe)
(note a space between the words "Steamworks and Shared" in the path above)

On fresh OS's it WILL actually install DX9. If your system already has it, it will simply tell you it's already installed.

7. Find FSX.exe, select it's properties/compatibility tab and make sure it is set it to "Run as Administrator", no need to set a compatibility mode.

8. Run FSX for the FIRST RUN. Note due to ageing the FSX home page certificate has expired and the first thing you will see is a notification. Click YES to proceed anyways and do this always and forever because Microsoft will NEVER renew the certificate. (or you can tweak the home page to be another file but that is beyond the scope of this manual).

After selecting YES to proceed you should be at the Menu.

When it gets to the Menu, QUIT! (Exit) NOW! BEFORE starting any flight or changing any settings. Do this to avoid any "crash" so that that the initial creation of user folders and config data (fsx.cfg, scenery.cfg etc.) get finished and SAVED correctly.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Changes you make to any FSX settings during any session only get saved when FSX successfully EXITS. If it crashes after you have made settings changes but before a good "exit", your changes will NOT be saved.)

9. Now you can go back and "remove" the administrator rights from STEAM.exe because it only needs those permissions during the install.

10 Restart FSX and go Fly! (or begin installing your DLC/Addons).


Special notes:

Steps 2 thru 4 and 9 are to get around the fluke that keeps causing people to get the "step by step" error upon FSX first starting after the install. NORMALLY if our user account is an administrator we wouldn't need to give those permissions but for some reason (with this first Windows 11 release) even with an administrator account, those permissions are NOT being passed on to Steam.exe. Thorough testing was done on clean OS to find define the problem and solution. Perhaps these steps will not be required in the future, but for now it works and even this becomes NOT REQUIRED, this will never HURT. If your install goes OK without doing these steps, good for YOU! But this guide is intended to help those that don't have such good luck.



Addendums:

IMPORTANT: Ensuring FSX uses more than ONE core of your CPU.

I don't think the installer calculates the AFFINITY MASK for the CPU that needs to go into the "fsx.cfg" file [Job Scheduler] section, and therefore the user has to learn about calculating the proper mask which depends on how many cores and whether they are hyper-threading or not, and get that placed properly into "fsx.cfg" or FSX will likely only use one core of your CPU out of the box. And it will crash a lot. But it might so after installing you might want check on this cause I just don't remember if you'll get one by default or not. Look in your "users\username\appdata\roaming\microsoft\fsx" folder and open fsx.cfg with notepad to look at it and look for the [Job Scheduler] section for the Affinity Mask=#####.
There is a website with an affinity mask calculator here;
https://fsxtimes.wordpress.com/tag/affinity-mask/
------------------------

IF after everything checks out with basic FSX anyone (as of this date) who installs ASN (Active Sky Next) DLC, from Steam, BEWARE it now requires an UPDATE from the HiFi technologies website or it WILL crash with "ambient control error" and shut down. (By the way, ASN calculates and installs an affinity mask if it doesn't find an existing one if fsx.cfg). Here is link to download the update:

https://hifisimtech.com/downloads/#ASN

--------------------------

If you use FSIUPC, I now know that at least with windows 11, it requires version 4.977, earlier versions will not install.

--------------------------

NOW go get STEVES DX10 FIXER and install it (the payware version is only $12 now, but you can get a freeware version that corrects most everything except DX9 only aircraft models (FS2004 conversions), those textures will still display as white or gray in DX10 mode without the payware. Once you have the freeware or payware patch installed then you can confidently turn on and run FSX in DX10 graphics mode for better graphics AND performance when using "native" FSX aircraft and scenery AND the older DX9 compiled graphics will still display correctly in DX10 mode.

Update as of 10/2024...Steves DX10 Fixer is no longer for sale. I don't know if he will ever, somehow make the payware available again. Fortunately his Free version is still available at common FSX forums and it fixes most DX10 preview mode issues anyway. What it doesn't fix is old FS2004 aircraft conversions to FSX, where the "models" were not recompiled, only the textures were upgraded (If you have any). Those older aircraft/scenery will always show as white or gray or invisible in DX10 mode, even with the freeware patch. To see them run FSX in DX9 mode.

-------------------------

Hope you all find this useful, Happy Flying!

JJ FSX

Success is not guaranteed if you had a previous corrupt install and you did not do a full "clean" uninstall of it, If you don't do a full "clean" up of all of the hidden and non-hidden settings folders, issue's you had with the previous install can come right back.

How to perform a CLEAN Uninstall:

After running the FSX uninstaller You MUST REMOVE THE FSX DATA UNDER YOUR PERSONAL:

1. "C:\users\username\APPDATA\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX"
2. "C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX"
3. "C:\PROGRAMDATA\Microsoft\FSX
4. "YOUR DOCUMENTS FOLDER\Flight Simulator X Files"
5. "your installation path\FSX "THE ENTIRE OLD FSX FOLDER ITSELF"

If you don't remove ALL 5 of these before re-installing you won't have a clean re-install and again your symptoms can come right back.

[kalnon]

@NIKOLAICH, simply reinstalling the DLC should fix the problem. If that doesn't work, verifying FSX game files (which also verifies DLC files) can fix the problem, though verifying game files can cause other problems if using custom landclass scenery like Orbx which there is a fix for on Orbx's forum site if you need. I've noticed on occasion, DLC's for FSX:SE can be missing files when you do a re installation.

[Games Aint Fun Anymore.]

ugh fuck it im going GEOFS....

[haris]

very important. First, you must give
rights to the C disk.

[FlyingDutchy]

Thanks for your very comprehensive reply/advise. I hope/wish that I can apply it. This is way beyond my scope. This could spell the end of my 9 year hobby.

[JJ FSX]

-NIKOLAICH, I don't know what to tell you. Troubleshoot the DLC installation. Perhaps uncheck and recheck the DLC installer, or run the verify integrity of files process under the FSX Properties, Or manually click through to that path with Windows file explorer, does it really NOT exist or does it exist? I can tell you with the exception of your redirection of the Steam Library, that folder exists under my DLC\364340 and under Voice there are .wav files and folders named USA-East-1, Canada-1 for example with .wav files under them.

[-NIKOLAICH-]

JJ FSX - Something is wrong with the sound. There is no Voice folder. Here's the log -System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException Message=Could not find part of the path "E:\Games\Steam Games\steamapps\common\FSX\DLC\364340\as_srv\Voice".
Source=mscorlib StackTrace= in System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) in System.IO.FileSystemEnumerableIterator`1.CommonInit() in System.IO.FileSystemEnumerableIterator`1..ctor(String path, String originalUserPath, String searchPattern, SearchOption searchOption, SearchResultHandler`1 resultHandler, Boolean checkHost)

[-NIKOLAICH-]

JJ FSX - Thank you. I'll reinstall FSX.

[JJ FSX]

-NIKOLAICH, first install FSX-SE with NO addons and make sure it runs fine without the real world weather. Only then go back into the Steam Library and check the box next to the ASN addon in the PROPERTIES/DLC tab of FSX.. That installs ASN. But it will crash with an "ambiant control" error if you run it without the patch. Run the patch, immediately after ASN is installed, It will detect ASN as ASN registers itself with Windows as FSX Active Sky Next Configuration Tool. And you should be good to go. SP2 is already included with FSX-SE the message is erroneous. Make sure you downloaded the correct patch for FSX-SE, not the patch for there other versions.

[-NIKOLAICH-]

JJ FSX - I did everything according to the instructions, but ASN requires installing SP 2. What's wrong? Windows 11 Enterprise edition
Version 23H2
Installation date 09/16/2024
OS build 22631.3155
Interoperability Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22684.1000.0

[JJ FSX]

-NIKOLAICH, yes 6116KB. Filename is "ActiveSkyNextSE_Update.exe"