Download for Flight Simulator X Standard Edition

Hello freshking1977,

I as far as I know there has never been a Download version of FSX:MS, FSX has always been distributed on DVD. The service packs SP1 & SP2 were downloadable at "FSinsider". Acceleration came on a separate DVD disk & "FSX Gold Deluxe" has 3 DVD's 2 for the installation of FSX and one for FSX Acceleration Pack. There was only a downloadable limited experience FSX demo, not much use really, it was only a taste of FSX.

ACES FSinsider website is no longer active and has been procured by Steam Dovetail through the FSX:SE version licencing agreement, the access point for FSinsider was through the FSX GUI "Home" tab, now directing users to FSX:SE content. FSinsider website has been removed.

AccelerationPack is not downloadable.

If you need FSX SP1 & SP2 to add to your FSX standard version DVD install, you can get them at Flyawaysimulation (links below)

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/1950/microsoft-flight-simulator-x-service-pack-1/

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2796/flight-simulator-x-service-pack-2/

If you want FSX these days your only options are expensive pre-owned Boxed sets from ebay and the like, or the steam version of FSX:SE which comes complete with FSX acceleration (no need for Service packs).

Yes, Jethro, and what a steal that was for Steam just a month or so ago, $8.47, I downloaded it for awhile, then moved it over to my external drive. Good for a backup if the FSX boxed ever goes bad.

It's surprising, there are still some good buys on the boxed versions, Deluxe and Gold on Ebay. A lot of people have negative thoughts about used, but if the ad says like new or very good condition and they have returns available, why not? I bought mine used on Ebay, not a problem!

You always get the dreamers who claim to have "New, never used" Buy it now, $200 - $300!! In your dweams Fwed!

Oh well, good luck with whatever you go with. There are members on here that moved to Steam and they swear by it, better graphics, faster speeds, you name it, they won't go back!

Rick :cool:

+1 also to going for FSX-SE.

At its normal price (as stated on the Steam website) it normally retails at around the 30 USD/25 Euro/23 UK Pound mark but it is often on sell for considerable less. It is worth noting that Steam has two types of sale - big sitewide sells that happen 4 or 5 times during the year (often at standard recognised sales periods such as Xmas, mid summer etc) and last for a week or longer. The other type is smaller product based sales that happen randomly and are often only for 24/48 hours.

If you want to wait for an item to go on sell simply put the item into your 'wish list' - you will then be notified whenever it goes on sell.

Also note that you can buy a 'product key' for FSX-SE from a number of well established flight sim vendors, such as SimMarket, FSPilotShop, JustFlight etc as well as general vendors like Ebay, Amazon etc. However, few of these have it on sell as often (and as low) as Steam does, tending only have it on sale during the standard recognised sales periods.

These 'product key' sales is for the key only and still requires you to set up a Steam account by downloading and installing the Steam client before you then add the product to your 'steam library' - this then provides a download link to the product.

I find it amazing that even after MicroSoft has basically abandoned FSX for years, I believe you still have to call an 800 number to activate the CD license. Why is that?

So, I installed FSX-Steam in late 2015, (with virtually no problems since) as I did not trust either EBay, or other sources to purchase a viable CD set.

You said you have the key. Does that mean you lost the disc?

It's been five years, but I'm pretty sure I never had a disc. I was living in Korea at the time, and I ordered it in January 2013. I got the key in an email from Microsoft with a link to download the simulator from their site. Now, of course, MS doesn't support flight simulator any longer and they won't/can't honor the key or my order number. It's not the end of the world, but I was hoping not to have to buy it twice.

It's been five years, but I'm pretty sure I never had a disc. I was living in Korea at the time, and I ordered it in January 2013. I got the key in an email from Microsoft with a link to download the simulator from their site. Now, of course, MS doesn't support flight simulator any longer and they won't/can't honor the key or my order number. It's not the end of the world, but I was hoping not to have to buy it twice.

You will. STEAM is the chosen download provider.

Least it is cheap.

It's been five years, but I'm pretty sure I never had a disc. I was living in Korea at the time, and I ordered it in January 2013. I got the key in an email from Microsoft with a link to download the simulator from their site. Now, of course, MS doesn't support flight simulator any longer and they won't/can't honor the key or my order number. It's not the end of the world, but I was hoping not to have to buy it twice.

Seems odd! I bought my FSX disc set online through Amazon in 2012. Never saw any downloads from Microsoft offering the same FSX Standard Edition, only the Demo Version. Almost sounds like you got ripped off by someone pretending to be Microsoft.

freshking - Look at the bright side of things. Even if you had the disc, even if Microsoft could get you up and running with a Standard edition, it wouldn't be long before you would want to step up to a Deluxe edition or Gold (which is the Deluxe plus acceleration) OR the less expensive with the same offerings as Gold, the Steam Edition! Something else just made the decision for you, it is what it is, got to move on to bigger and better! Whatever you decide to go with, you will not be dis-satisfied. As far as I know, the Standard edition had less default aircraft, so right off the get-go, you will be getting more aircraft! Good luck, make your decision and don't look back. Just start enjoying the flight sim again!

Rick :cool:

STARTING WITH A CLEAN SLATE!

Greetings fellow flight sim enthusiasts! This is my first ever posting on this website. Ok, so my situation is this. My old Windows 7 PC desktop is starting to fail (graphics card playing up), so I have taken the plunge to spend a lot of money on a top grade games type desktop PC. I deleted FSX some years ago as it started to crash. The computer ran much faster after I deleted the simulator.

But now it's time to upgrade. My new PC should be arriving next week. Now it doesn't come with any CD/DVD readers. In fact there are no slots in the case to accommodate any of those! I was hoping to download the FSX Gold addition on line from somewhere, but it appears from reading posts on here that that is not an option. So, I may have to purchase an external CD/DVD reader and use that to install my boxed set of the FSX Gold Edition (3 DVD's).

The other thing that concerns me is that I've heard reports that the simulator does not work very well with Windows 10. Is that true, and if so, how does one get around that?

My particular interest is to get the best possible add-on scenery that one can get (airports/airport scenery enhancements etc.), even if it means that I have to pay for it. Where is the best source for obtaining high quality add-on scenery for FSX?

Also, is there a force feedback joystick on the market that works with FSX and Windows 10?

I would greatly appreciate anyone's comments on the above. Thanks in advance.

flightmoke - First off, welcome to the forum. I will answer some of your questions, but not all as I am not in to downloading add-on scenery. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just haven't downloaded any of them.

Force feedback joystick, I don't have one, but others out there that have them, they can better make comments to that!

Windows 10. There have been those that have expressed negative comments about Windows 10, but from what I have read, there is nothing wrong with using Windows 10 in a flight sim environment. I am surprised you haven't received any comments from the Windows 10 supporters yet! i continue hearing about those who use it, use it in confidence, no issues at all. Be patient, you will hear from them!

You will need to get an external CD/DVD read/write drive. I bought a laptop and it too came without, but not a "deal breaker," as these items are very inexpensive online or at local outlets. You will need one for downloading any software, but most importantly, you might need one for maybe doing back-ups to DVD disks? DVD disks today, are large capacity disks, which can be useful. Not as good, as say an external hard disk storage media. I have both and I use both!

Your FSX Gold Edition is still a premium software, and is still good (I have Gold also) as long as you still have your 2 product keys (one for the 2 disks for Deluxe and the second one for the 3rd disk for the acceleration! If you wanted to make the move to FSX Steam, that is a good choice also. People on here, swear they gained performance, graphics, reliability with Steam, but I can't say. My boxed version still works great. I did recently purchase Steam, as the price was right and only did so, that it would provide me with an option, in the event my boxed set ever decided to quit working for me!

Enjoy your new computer. It should be nice to have a "high performance" gamer pc, that will be able to respond to all your demands you can throw at it!

You will get it going to your liking, just some decisions to make along the way! External drive will be needed!

Rick :cool:

Hi Rick - thanks for your response and info. Just a bit puzzled at the moment regarding this 'steam' version. Is it a downloadable addon to FSX and also, what does it do that the FSX Deluxe boxed set doesn't do? I've just checked - my boxed set is a 2 DVD set and not 3. In the past, for some reason I didn't go for the 'acceleration' option at the time. I don't know why, but you think it's a definite advantage do you?

Also, the thing that I'm VERY keen on is a realtime weather software addon which was excellent. I think it was the 'REX' software, but I can't be certain, but the only downside to it was that the weather SUDDENLY changed instantly moving from area to area, which of course is not at all realistic! I did read some years ago that there is software out there that has overcome that problem by SLOWLY changing weather patterns as one flies from area to area. Could you recommend flight simulator weather software that'll be able to do just that? Cheers.

flightmoke- Okay, if you only have 2 disks, you probably have the Deluxe Boxed Set. The Gold version comes with a 3rd disk which is the Acceleration Disk. I have the Gold Boxed set, but opted to only install Disk 1 and Disk 2, due to my computer being border line on being able to handle that 3rd disk. Works well enough for me with just the Deluxe 2 disk installed. Steam is not an add-on to FSX. It is a stand alone download from the internet that gives you everything that the Gold boxed set (3 disks) would give you.

As far as weather software, I can't help you. Never had the need for it. Somebody might chime in and help. I think what you need to do right now, is make a decision of what you are going to install on the new computer! The 2 disks you have or just go for the Steam Edition. You can work out the Weather software later.

Good luck - Rick :cool:

flightmoke - I should have said something sooner. The OP for this post has lost control over his own post. You came in behind him on the same thread, when you really should have submitted your own thread. You said the computer isn't here yet, but, when it does arrive, you will probably be anxious to get things up and running. Along with that process, you will probably have more questions of this forum, so, if you have any other questions or concerns, please submit a new post, okay?

Thanks and Mr freshking, I do apologize for not thinking ahead and having flightmoke submit his own thread! If you should have any questions, please feel free to continue on your own thread!

Rick :cool:

Hi Rick - thanks for your response and info. Just a bit puzzled at the moment regarding this 'steam' version. Is it a downloadable addon to FSX and also, what does it do that the FSX Deluxe boxed set doesn't do? I've just checked - my boxed set is a 2 DVD set and not 3. In the past, for some reason I didn't go for the 'acceleration' option at the time. I don't know why, but you think it's a definite advantage do you?

 

Also, the thing that I'm VERY keen on is a realtime weather software addon which was excellent. I think it was the 'REX' software, but I can't be certain, but the only downside to it was that the weather SUDDENLY changed instantly moving from area to area, which of course is not at all realistic! I did read some years ago that there is software out there that has overcome that problem by SLOWLY changing weather patterns as one flies from area to area. Could you recommend flight simulator weather software that'll be able to do just that? Cheers.

STEAM is the delivery method. As it's the only one available reliably in 2018 this is what you will buy. Suggest you do some research as your questions have been asked a thousand times before - and answered. STEAM provides FSX-SE `Steam Edition` which is the latest version of Acceleration.

Weather: A number of alternatives exist. REX and Active Sky are but two. Use Google search term `Weather Engines for FSX` to see a good selection and save repetition.

The one you cannot rely on in 2018 is the inbuilt weather engine as it's barely working, if at all. You WILL be adding a weather engine, but not necessarily paying for one, unless you wish to. There are freeware alternatives.

Please try to remember it's the first time you may be answering these questions, but they have ALL been asked before... FSX was released on October 13th 2006. An absolute age in computer game terms. The ACES studio that created it was closed in early 2009. Google is the best solution to the general search requirement and any and all first questions, then come back here to clarify.