3rd party Add ons & system instability

Hi All

I currently have a clean install of MSFS 2020 (i.e. no add ons / no market place /3rd party content) and at the moment enjoy the sim with zero CTDs / issues, which is great and I'm loving.

I'm thinking of enhancing my enjoyment of the sim by adding some 3rd party content, such as the downloads on flightsim.to, but am worried that this could cause increased system instability / CTDs etc, which I want to avoid at all costs as I'm not good with computers and live in a rural area with not the best internet coverage, and so don't want to be in a position where I'm needing to sort out issues / re-install the sim).

Am I worrying unnecessarily and missing out big time by not installing 3rd party content, or is it inevitable that adding 3rd party content make the sim less stable / lead to more CTDs than before?

All thought gratefully received! :-)

Thanks

Paul

Hi All

 

Am I worrying unnecessarily and missing out big time by not installing 3rd party content, or is it inevitable that adding 3rd party content make the sim less stable / lead to more CTDs than before?

 

All thought gratefully received! :-)

 

Thanks

 

Paul

Your question is a good one to ask. No, you should not be worrying unnecessarily, but a bit of caution might be called for.

3rd party add on's add (no pun intended) a LOT of features to the sim! That being said, some may interreact with the sim and not play nice.

Here is a site which a LOT of us use-https://flightsim.to/

Once you explore the site, I recommend this be one of your first downloads-https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

This program will organize your add ons and allow you to turn on and off any that you add. It also allows you to place your add ons in ANY drive/directory of your choosing. I have my add ons on my D drive in a folder called MSFS add on That way, my Community folder does not get cluttered with the add ons.

Will they cause the sim to crash? It could happen, but most likely it may cause some other weird things to happen. If you find that is the case, simply disable the add on via the Add on Linker :)

When an update comes out, it is recommended that you turn off any 3rd party add on, there might be compatibility issues.

As for reinstalling due to 3rd party add on's-I have not read about this happening and this has not been the case for me.

And last-this is one of my favorite add on's-shiftzstats Yes, it brings back the shift-z command that I use to love in FSX, shows a bunch of information, is customizable and something I use on every flight.

https://flightsim.to/file/16358/shift-z-stats,