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Thanks for posting this. I just got this splash screen installed, edited its batch file to slightly change the splash screen text appearance and to use the -Faststart option, and configured MSFS Addons Linker to start MSFS with it. A definite improvement in the MSFS start up!

Great! You will love it. It caused me one major problem though that took me a year to figure out. It uses some PC software that has a very problematic setting that you MUST change. It is called Alien FX that has power/energy usage settings that match the Windows power settings - high performance/gaming, balanced, power saving, and custom. It is set to “power saver” by default. Change this setting to something else, most likely to match your Windows gaming or balanced setting. Balanced is preferable IMHO as it lets your CPU speed boost or idle depending on demand. My system and MSFS run perfectly with balanced. The problem with Alien FX is that it’s power saver setting also causes your Windows setting to change (just after every system boot) to power saver and this keeps your CPU at its lowest idle speed regardless of demand. This caused my 5.3 GHz max CPU to run at 800 MHz all the time. MSFS start up took over 10 minutes and it ran with stutters. Now it starts in less than 2 minutes and has no stutters. Fixing the Alien FX power setting was like a miracle happened! All of the above assumes that you have your system BIOS set to use the variable speed options of your Intel CPU.

I am very happy with my Dell Alienware AW3821DW 38" curved G-Sync Ultimate monitor. 144Hz native refresh rate. 3840p x 1660p resolution. 0.229mm pixel pitch. LCD w/LED backlight panel w/178 degree viewing angle. 2300R curve. Price is lower now than when I bought it a year ago (might be a temporary sale though, not sure).

Cavulife, if that Status line is only to alert others to my game status, is the line able to be toggled to another setting only if MSFS is in multiplayer mode? In non-multiplayer mode (which I always use), that Status line is completely greyed out and not clickable, including the blue arrow pointing down at the end of the line, where I am assuming those other status choices are located.

Some more info - just took a flight and after landing and exiting the flight checked the username button. It said "offline" as the status. But the server line, while still greyed out, said "Automatic" and "25ms" and had a green wifi icon. (My computer is wired, not using wifi.) So, perhaps it was actually online this time, even though the status line still said "offline". Curious!

Yes, I signed out and in to MSFS. Didn't try signing out and in to XBox app or Microsoft (Windows 10) account.

Well, if I'm not the only one experiencing this, maybe this is a MSFS bug - status shows as offline when sim is actually online.

Thanks, @davidc2. I know that is where the setting is for enabling online status. But I don't think that is where actual online status is shown. My issue is that even with that setting ON, when I click on my username button (top right, with logo) it shows (in a small dropdown menu) that status is offline and the server line greyed out. I haven't checked this by pausing in the air in the middle of a flight - only when on the ground setting up a new flight. Maybe online status happens only when in the air? Not sure - I just assumed that MSFS is supposed to be online whenever the sim is running. Is that incorrect?

OK, thanks, @plainsman. I will check again, but lately the status is shown as offline every time I look. It doesn't seem to change for a few seconds at a time. But actual flight seems ok - scenery is there during flight even in areas I haven't flown in before. How does one tell at any moment whether MSFS is in online or offline mode? Is there any indication other than clicking on the username button at any given moment?

When I click on the button with my MSFS name on it, it states that MSFS is offline and the server name for my area is shown greyed out. When I check the Data settings, they are all ON (other than Multiplayer). This includes Bing, photogrammetry, live weather, online functionality, etc. How do I know if I am running MSFS in online or offline mode? And how would I change to online mode, if I am truly on offline mode now?

Thanks. Well, I found that the Autorudder setting was somehow turned off by one of the updates (I think). With Autorudder on, I am able to steer on the ground using the yoke axis (the steering wheel). This seems logical to me, as I don't have pedals. I don't know if I should double-assign the rudder or anything else to the yoke axis that also has the ailerons assigned. Is that the right thing to do? Now, with Autorudder on, it is possible to steer with the yoke but sometimes the turning radius of the plane is so large that it is hard to make some corners or curves. I have all brakes assigned to one yoke button. I know separate left and right brake assignments could help with steering, but I haven't done that yet.

I've been flying only the default Cessna 172. I have lost the ability to ground steer the plane at all - for taxi to runway, takeoff roll, or after landing. On takeoff, the C172 steers itself quite a bit to the left and off of the runway. (I can sometimes get the plane off the grass and into the air anyway.) I believe this started with one of the MSFS updates a few months ago. My flight controls are a Honeycomb Alpha yoke and Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant. I have no pedals. I looked carefully in the yoke and throttle settings and could find no duplicate assignments. Ailerons are assigned to the yoke left and right steering wheel axis, and work to turn in the air. Rudder is unassigned at the moment. Is that the problem? I seem to recall that some time ago I tried another plane type and had the same issue.

Does anyone know if, in addition to the "new XBox" app, the prior XBox app (the "XBox Console" app), is required to remain on a Windows system for MSFS updating to work properly?

jrdale210, my install of MSFS was behaving exactly that way until I figured out that I needed to install a "new" XBox app onto my Windows system (in addition to the XBox Console app that was already on the system). Once I did that, I was able to update MSFS from within that "new" XBox app. MSFS then opened and behaved normallyl.

[SOLVED!!] At least, I think so right now. I found some threads on a MS forum that suggested that Windows MSFS users must install the new XBox app from the MS Store. (I already had the XBox Companion Console app, but apparently that is not enough. It might not even be needed anymore, but not sure about that. After installing the new XBox app, it quickly located my installed MSFS app and it was easy to click within the XBox app to start the download. It was less than 1GB, IIRC. Then MSFS was able to start and check for updates the normal way and a further 40GB download happened. My MSFS version changed to 1.18.15.0, which I believe is the latest. I started MSFS and made a short VFR flight, which went without incident. I did not have to uninstall/reinstall MSFS. I did remove the AFC Bridge folder (Honeycomb-related, I think) from the Community folder before updating. There were no other folders there. The visuals (clouds and ground from up to 4000') did not look as crisp as before. I've read that SU5 degrades graphics quality. Not sure if this was remedied with the hotfixes. Does anyone know? How can I tell if all of the hotfixes to SU5 were installed?

@davidc2, what is the best way to uninstall and reinstall? The current install is to a specified NVME drive other than the Windows OS drive. (Of course, there are MSFS files on the Windows OS (C:\) drive as well.) Do I have to worry about manually deleting files? Once I uninstall, will the MS Store know that I have purchased MSFS and allow a new download/install of the latest version?

I need to correct what I said above. The message about MSFS being Installed is displaying in MS Store, but it does not change to Updating. Logging out, rebooting, logging in to Xbox on Xbox Console app made no change. Still can't download updates or keep MSFS open. This is very frustrating. I guess I'll have to start thinking about finding the proper way to uninstall MSFS and reinstall. What a nightmare! The update system seems finicky, to say the least.

Tim, I tried logging out of my Microsoft Store account and logged back in. Not aware that I had an Xbox account, but I'll try to find where it is.

Thanks, Tim. But the preview trailer launches without any message about the program being installed and runs through to its conclusion. Nothing is shown about updating, nor does the update start automatically. Some more info: The MSFS Community folder has only a shortcut to the FBW a320neo and an AFC Bridge folder relating to my Honeycomb hardware. It's hard to understand what's happened as the computer was unplugged from power and internet for 2 months and MSFS was working fine before that. Windows was updated the other day before I tried running MSFS.

I've had a functional installation of MSFS on my Windows 10 system for many months. Previous updates have downloaded from the MS Store without issues. I believe I have Sim Update 4 as the latest update. After being away from MSFS for a couple of months, I've attempted to start it, expecting Sim Update 5 and the latest hotfix(es) to be installed. MSFS starts and immediately presents the box regarding mandatory updates. When clicked, MSFS closes and MS Store opens, but no updates start downloading. Browsing through MS Store presents no way to manually start MSFS updates that I can find. Going to the Installed section of MS Store shows MSFS as being installed, but it is not listed in the Downloads and Updates section of MS Store. (Why isn't MSFS listed in the Windows 10 Settings-Uninstall a Program list of installed programs?) Clicking on the Update All button in the Downloads and Updates section of MS Store updates other things, but nothing for MSFS. I have signed out and in to my Microsoft account. I have reset MS Store in Windows 10, and restarted MSFS at least 10 times with no change. MSFS cannot be run without updating and I cannot get it to update. I have found a few posts with suggestions but none seem to work for me. How do I resolve this? Thanks.

Thanks for all of the information everyone. Very helpful. I'm going to start the purchase/download/install process tonight or tomorrow. I'll be purchasing from the MS Store.

OK, thanks for the replies, guys. I guess I will attempt to have the initial MSFS download be saved directly to the second M.2 SSD. This assumes that at the time of the initial download I can specify precisely which folder the download goes to. And, just in case, before the download, I will temporarily set my browser (Firefox) to save all downloads to that folder on the second M.2 SSD.

Thanks, but I'm asking about where on my own computer to place the downloaded MSFS program and addon files.

I have finally built my new computer mainly for MSFS use. I am about ready to purchase and download the MSFS program, but am wondering which computer drive to download the files to. I understand that this will be about a 130GB download. I have a 1TB M.2 SSD that I am using as the Windows boot drive, with a separate partition on that SSD for downloads. I also have another M.2 SSD that I will install into the computer with the intention of installing MSFS there so as to keep its massive files segregated from the computer operating system to the extent possible. My question is whether installing MSFS moves any/all of the downloaded files from the download directory on my computer to a different program installation directory that I may specify during installation. Or, after MSFS installation, do the downloaded files remain exactly where they were downloaded to be accessed by MSFS from there as needed when running? So, to achieve maximum segregation of MSFS from Windows, should I download the program to my normal download location or directly to the 2nd SSD which will, hopefully, be used for installation of MSFS? And, I guess the same question applies for addons that I may download in the future.....

OK, thanks, Steve. I guess there's no problem with installing the bulk of FS away from the C:\ drive. Also no problem for updates? I see from your post info that you have 64GB of RAM. So far my research has told me that 32GB is enough. But I could be persuaded. Do you have any comment on that? And I see you have a 1000W power supply. I am trying to decide between 1000W titanium and 1300W platinum. I know the larger is probably overkill. I plan on getting a large monitor, RTX 3080 or better graphics card (if I can find one at MSRP), and flight controls from Honeycomb. The online calculators are predicting a peak power draw of 700 watts or so. I always thought it was good to almost double expected use so as not to stress the power supply components. I know peak power efficiency begins at around 50% of maximum. Do you have any thoughts on the size of power supply? Thank you again.