How do I install scenery and aircraft in MSFS 2024?

Hi Rob,

Welcome back to the hobby -- quite a jump from Flight Simulator 2 to MSFS 2024. 🙂

For MSFS 2024, most manually installed scenery and aircraft go into the sim's Community folder. The important bit is finding the correct one, because its location depends on whether you installed through Microsoft Store/Xbox app, Steam, or chose a custom packages location.

Try this first

Close MSFS 2024, then press Windows key + R and try one of these:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages

or, for Steam installs, try:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\Packages

Inside there you should hopefully see:

Community
Official

If you find the Community folder, that is where the add-on folder goes.

Installing the World Trade Center scenery

Do it like this:

1. Download the add-on ZIP file.
2. Unzip it somewhere temporary, for example your Desktop.
3. Open the extracted folder and check what is inside.
4. You want to copy the actual add-on folder into Community.

The correct add-on folder will usually contain files such as:

manifest.json
layout.json

So the final path should look something like this:

Community\world-trade-center-scenery\manifest.json

Not like this:

Community\World-Trade-Center-Zip-Folder\world-trade-center-scenery\manifest.json

That double-folder mistake is very common, and the sim usually will not load the add-on if the real package folder is buried one level too deep.

Same idea for aircraft

Aircraft made for MSFS also normally go into the Community folder the same way. Just be careful that older FSX / Prepar3D aircraft will not usually work by simply dropping them into MSFS 2024. They need to be MSFS-compatible packages.

If you still cannot find the folder

Windows may be hiding the AppData folders. In File Explorer, enable hidden items:

• Open File Explorer
• Go to View
• Enable Hidden items

You can also search your PC for:

Community

or for:

UserCfg.opt

If you find UserCfg.opt, open it with Notepad and look for the packages path. That usually points you to where the sim is keeping the Official and Community folders.

After placing the scenery in Community, start MSFS 2024 again and check the area where the scenery should appear.

If you can, let us know whether your MSFS 2024 is the Steam version or the Microsoft Store/Xbox version, and what the extracted World Trade Center folder looks like inside. That will make it easier to point you to the exact folder.