The Diagnostics Tool checks a range of information on your PC and simulator installation and puts the results into an easy-to-read report.

It can collect information about Windows, your hardware, storage, DirectX and supported simulator configuration. It can also look for things such as missing paths, broken links and other information that may be useful when troubleshooting.

The idea is to give you and anyone helping you a clearer picture of the system instead of having to check everything manually.

No. The tool is designed to inspect your system and collect information rather than make changes to your simulator or Windows installation.

It does not need to change simulator settings just to produce the report.

The tool checks several different areas of your system, so it can take a little time to complete.

The amount of time can also depend on the number of simulator files, packages, paths and other information that needs to be checked.

No. The report contains a lot of technical information because it is intended to provide a useful overall picture of the system.

You can concentrate on warnings, missing items, unresolved paths and other results that appear unusual. If you are asking someone for help, it is normally better to provide the complete report rather than trying to decide which lines are important yourself.

The TXT report is designed to give you a complete picture of what the Diagnostics Tool found. You do not need to understand every line before you can use it.

Start at the top and work your way through the sections. The beginning normally contains general information about your PC, including Windows, CPU, GPU, RAM, storage and DirectX information.

The report then moves on to simulator-specific information and the checks performed by the tool.

Pay particular attention to anything marked as missing, unresolved, broken or otherwise different from the expected result.

Remember that a warning does not automatically mean something is broken. Some results are simply there to provide information or highlight something that may be worth checking.

These results do not all mean the same thing, and they should not automatically be treated as errors.

Not Detected generally means the tool checked for something but did not detect it. The item may not be installed, active or present on the system.

Not Found means the tool expected to find something at a particular location but could not find it.

Could Not Determine means the tool was unable to confidently work out the result.

The surrounding information is important, so these results should not normally be judged on their own.

These terms describe the current state of something the tool has checked.

Active generally means the item is present and currently being recognised or used.

Inactive means the item exists but is not currently active or being used in the way the check expects.

Missing means the tool could not find the item it was looking for.

Whether an inactive or missing result is actually a problem depends on what is being checked.

The overall result is intended to give you a quick indication of what the scan found. It should be treated as a summary rather than a final diagnosis.

A clean result does not guarantee that every simulator or Windows problem has been ruled out, just as a warning does not automatically mean that the reported item is causing your problem.

If something is highlighted, look at the individual result and the information around it in the report.

The report collects useful system information such as your Windows version, processor, graphics card, memory, storage and DirectX information.

This information helps provide context when looking at simulator performance, crashes and configuration problems.

Your CPU is the main processor in your computer. The report can show information such as the number of CPU cores, threads and processor speed.

Cores are the physical processing units in the CPU. Threads describe how many processing tasks the CPU can handle at the same time.

Clock speed indicates processor frequency. It should not be used on its own to decide whether a PC is fast enough for a simulator.

The GPU is your graphics processor. It handles much of the work involved in displaying the simulator.

VRAM is the graphics memory available to the GPU. It is separate from normal system RAM and is commonly used for textures, scenery and other graphics data.

The report may also show your graphics driver version. This can be useful when troubleshooting graphics problems.

RAM is your computer's main system memory. Windows and applications use it for general processing.

VRAM is memory associated with the graphics card and is primarily used by the GPU for graphics-related data.

They perform different jobs, so having plenty of one does not automatically compensate for having less of the other.

DirectX is a collection of Windows technologies used by games and applications for graphics, sound and other hardware features.

The report can show information about the DirectX environment and supported graphics features.

The storage section checks available space on relevant drives. This is important because simulators can use a large amount of storage for the simulator itself, scenery, packages, caches and other files.

A low-storage warning does not necessarily mean that the simulator is broken, but it is worth checking if the affected drive is used by the simulator or its packages.

The MSFS 2024 section looks at information available from the simulator installation and configuration.

Depending on what is available, this can include configuration information, package locations, Community Folder information, linked entries and other simulator-related paths.

The purpose is to give you a clearer picture of how the simulator is currently configured rather than changing the configuration.

UserCfg.opt is a configuration file used by Microsoft Flight Simulator. It contains information used by the simulator for parts of its configuration.

The Diagnostics Tool can use information from this file when checking the simulator installation and related paths.

If the expected configuration file cannot be found, that does not automatically mean the simulator is broken. The result should be considered alongside the other MSFS information.

The Community Folder is where many third-party MSFS add-ons are installed. Aircraft, scenery, liveries and other add-ons can be placed there.

Because third-party content can affect the simulator, knowing where the Community Folder is located can be useful when troubleshooting.

If you are experiencing crashes or other problems, the report can help show where the simulator is looking for this content.

These results are particularly useful when you use add-ons through linked folders or a tool such as MSFS Addons Linker.

A linked entry normally refers to an add-on or folder that is being connected to the simulator from another location.

A broken link means the link points somewhere that the tool cannot currently find or access.

A broken link does not automatically mean that the simulator itself is broken. It may simply mean that an add-on was moved, deleted, renamed or its original location is no longer available.

If you see several broken links, it is worth checking them, especially if they relate to add-ons you are currently trying to use.

MSFS Addons Linker is commonly used to manage Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons from outside the normal Community Folder.

It can create links so that add-ons stored elsewhere can be made available to the simulator.

If the Diagnostics Tool finds information relating to linked add-ons, the report can help identify whether paths and links appear to be available.

The Prepar3D section checks available configuration and simulator information that can help identify how Prepar3D is set up.

This can include configuration paths, scenery information and references to files or folders used by the simulator.

Prepar3D uses paths to locate scenery, add-ons and other simulator content.

A Discovery Path is a location Prepar3D can use to find additional content or components.

Scenery Areas are locations registered with the simulator as scenery sources.

If a path points to something that no longer exists, the report may highlight it so that you can decide whether it needs to be cleaned up or corrected.

It normally means that a path recorded in the simulator configuration could not be found at the location recorded.

This can happen if scenery or an add-on has been removed, moved to another drive, renamed or uninstalled without its configuration entry being removed.

It is worth checking these entries if you are troubleshooting Prepar3D problems, but a missing path does not automatically mean it is responsible for the issue.

Windows records events when applications, drivers and system components encounter problems or report important activity.

The Diagnostics Tool can include relevant event information in the report to help provide additional clues when investigating crashes or application problems.

An event appearing in the report does not automatically mean that it caused the problem. The application, time, error details and surrounding events are important.

Not necessarily.

An error recorded by Windows can be useful when investigating a problem, but it does not automatically prove that the error was the original cause of the crash.

For example, a GPU-related event may appear after an application has already encountered another problem. The timing and surrounding events therefore matter.

This is why the Diagnostics Tool reports the information rather than automatically claiming that a particular event is the cause.

These sections bring attention to information that may be useful when investigating a problem.

A diagnostic lead is best thought of as something worth looking at rather than a confirmed fault.

For example, a missing path, unusual configuration, storage warning or recorded application event may be included because it could be relevant to troubleshooting.

The report gives you the information so that you can investigate it further instead of assuming that every highlighted result is the cause.

Not necessarily. The Diagnostics Tool is designed to collect useful information and highlight things that may be relevant to a problem. It is not intended to automatically identify the exact cause of every simulator or Windows issue.

The report may show a missing path, broken link, unusual configuration, storage warning or Windows event. These can provide useful clues, but they do not automatically mean that the item is responsible for a crash, performance problem or other issue.

This is why it is important to look at the report as a whole rather than focusing on the first warning or error that appears. Information from several sections can sometimes help narrow down what needs to be checked.

If you are asking for help, providing the complete TXT report is usually more useful than providing only one section.

If you are asking for help with a simulator or PC problem, include the TXT report produced by the Diagnostics Tool whenever possible.

Also explain what is actually happening. For example, tell people whether the simulator crashes, freezes, fails to start, has performance problems or displays an error.

The more useful information you provide about the actual problem, the easier it is to compare it with the information in the report.

No.

The report is intentionally detailed, so it can contain information that is useful in some situations but has no effect on your particular problem.

A warning, missing entry or recorded event should be treated as something to investigate rather than proof that something is broken.

Look at the result together with the rest of the report and consider whether it actually relates to the problem you are experiencing.

That's fine. You are not expected to understand every technical entry in the report.

If you are asking for help, provide the TXT report and explain what problem you are having. Someone can then look at the relevant sections and explain what the results mean.

Avoid changing files or deleting configuration entries simply because they appear as warnings unless you know what they are used for.