Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Crashing on Startup: Easy Fixes

Microsoft Flight Simulator is an award-winning (best SIM/strategy) video game published by Xbox Game Studios. The game gives you the opportunity to travel around the world with complete freedom. But some regular users are starting to point out that Microsoft Flight Simulator crashes at startup and won’t launch properly.

The crash problem in Microsoft Flight Simulator is not a serious one and can be easily solved using the solutions provided in this article. There are many possible causes for the same issue, such as an outdated driver, corrupted game files, a slow internet connection, and many more. If you are experiencing the same problem, you can rely on this article to get all possible and reliable solutions. Let’s have a look.

Some workarounds:

Check your internet connectivity.
Make sure you downloaded the latest game patch.
Restart the system and the game once or twice.
Ensure unwanted programs/apps are not running in the background.
Disable your Antivirus temporarily.
Ensure your system meets the requirement to run the game.

If any of the above solutions are not enough for you, you can go for the sure solutions listed below.

Fix 1: You need to Verify Integrity of Game Files:

You can check the integrity of the game files as a first attempt to fix the Microsoft Flight Simulator crashing issue. To check the integrity, you can follow these steps,

Firstly, launch the Steam client and go to LIBRARY.
From there the list, select and right-click over Microsoft Flight Simulator and click on Properties.
In the next window, select the Local Files option and click on Verify integrity of game files option
Once done, restart the game and check for improvement.

Fix 2: Update Graphics Driver:

If your game is not running smoothly, you need to check the Graphics driver installed on your system. Assuming the Graphics driver is outdated or corrupted, your game might not launch properly and shows inconsistencies. Here you need to update the driver, and you can follow the steps below to update your driver.

Firstly, right-click over the Start button and select Device Manager from the context menu.
Then inside the Device Manager, select and expand the option Display adapters section.
Now right-click over the Graphics driver and click on Update driver from the drop-down menu.

You can go to the Manufacture’s official website of your Graphics driver (AMD, NVIDIA).
Then select the latest driver suitable to your system and download and install it on your system.

If you find that the manual update is time consuming, you may want to rely on any third-party automatic driver update tool. There are several update tools available online; choose the trustworthy one.

Fix 3: Update Windows:

If your Windows is out of date, then there is a chance that your Microsoft Flight Simulator might crash into your system. You can update your Windows to avoid this error. To do so,

Firstly, type ‘Update and Security’ in the taskbar search box and open relevant search results.
Then in the Update & Security option, choose Windows Update and click on Check for updates tab now.
Your Windows will start automatically and install new updates.

Fix 4: Change Power Plan:

Another solution to avoid the issue of Microsoft Flight Simulator crashing or freezing is to change the Windows Power Plan feature settings. To change the settings, you can follow these below-given steps,

Firstly, press Windows + R simultaneously to launch the Run dialog box, then type control /name Microsoft.PowerOptions and click on OK.
In the Hide additional plans window, click on the radio button beside High performance and then select Change plan settings from the right side of the screen.
Now in the newly opened window, click on Turn off the display, and from the drop-down list, select Never and click on the Save changes tab.
Once done, relaunch the game and check for improvement.

Fix 5: Disable Peripherals:

Gaming gears help to enhance your gaming experience, while at the same time, it can lead to many problems such as game crashes and freezes. In this case, unplug the gaming gear such as the controller, joysticks, and yokes and see if it helps. If not, move on to the next solution.

Fix 6: Troubleshoot Xbox App:

If something goes wrong with your Xbox app, the Microsoft Flight Simulator game can sometimes crash or freeze. All you have to do here is troubleshoot the app, and you can use the Terminate, Reset Repair and Uninstall options.

To do so,

Firstly, type Xbox app in the taskbar search box and open the relevant result.
Then right-click on the Xbox app and select App settings.
Then go to the Terminate option. This option will force stop the Xbox app.
Now go to the Reset option to clear Xbox game files.
Then select the Repair option to repair temporary and random game glitches.
Finally, you can choose Uninstall option to remove the system from your system. once done, reinstall the app freshly.

Fix 7: Increase Virtual Memory:

If none of the above solutions help you, you can increase the virtual memory of your system. This setting is helpful for users when trying to run applications or programs that use more resources on the system. So, users can avoid crashing or any such issues. To make changes, follow these below steps,

Firstly, type ‘View advanced system settings’ in the taskbar search box and open the relevant search result.
Then in the Advanced tab, click on the Settings tab under the Performance section.
In the Performance Options window, select the Advanced tab from the top menu and click on the Change button under the Virtual memory section.
Now untick the option beside Automatically manage paging file size for all drives and select the Custom size option.
Then set the Initial size and Maximum size according to your system’s physical memory.
If your RAM size is 8GB, then your Initial size is 8 x 1024 x 1.5, and the maximum size is 8 x 1024 x 3.
Once you enter the size in the given space, click on the Set tab and OK button.
Now restart the system and check the crashing issue is resolved.

So these are all about the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Crashing on Startup issue, and its sure fixes. However, if you have any queries or doubts after reading this article, then please leave a comment in the below-given comment box.