Getting MSFS 2020 to run on W7 x64

[sunryze]

So out of the box, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (the new one) does not support 7 or 8. Obviously, it came out past the EOL date of 7 and MSFT wants to forget about 8. But I really think it is possible to get working. Trying to run the app with steam just ends up in it closing, and running FlightSimulator.exe gives us this:

Alright, a missing function. This is something we would need to extend in the DLL, but I am not sure what would be a worthy replacement. Someone with knowledge like win32 would be helpful here, but I don't want to disrupt his time making the already awesome Vista extended kernel. I would assume that it may be easier to port 8 functions over first, but we aren't in a need of that.

The first step is to find if this function exists in 8, and see if we can use the same dll on 7 or port over its function. But this isn't our entire problem.

The main issue is that this isn't the only missing function. There are a lot of missing API-MS-WIN-* DLL files (might exist in 8) and as well as that, the missing functions using DependencyWalker tell us this:
ESENT.DLL -> JetStopServiceInstance2
IEFRAME.DLL -> Entry Points not bound, function #160, 141 and 159
API-MS-WIN-CORE-THREADPOOL-L1-1-0.DLL -> SetWaitableTimerEx
IMM32.DLL -> ImmDisableLegacyIME
NCRYPT.DLL -> NCryptKeyDerivation
MFPLAT.DLL -> MFRegisterLocalByteStreamHandler, MFCreateMFByteStreamOnStreamEx
UXTHEME.DLL -> GetThemeAnimationTransform, GetThemeAnimationProperty, GetThemeTimingFunction
DWMAPI.DLL -> DwmTetherContact, DwmRenderGesture
NDFAPI.DLL -> NdfCreateNetConnectionIncident
OLE32.DLL -> CoIncrementMTAUsage, RoGetAgileReference
MFPLAT.DLL -> MFCreateDXGIDeviceManager
API-MS-WIN-CRT-PRIVATE-L1-1-0.DLL -> __CxxFrameHandler4

Those are all the missing functions. There is a lot to do here, but who knows if it will work anyway because the game is DirectX12 now.

After looking through deeper, the last missing DLL seems to just be a number that is wrong. *FrameHandler4 does not exist in that DLL, but *FrameHandler3 and 2 exist. I am wondering if they give the same results when used. Some other DLLs like OLE32 tell us that the missing functions just don't have anything related at all.

Any ideas here?
 

[Jaguarek62]

it does work under 8.1 with some workaround: 

 

[TheFighterJetDude]

On 7/14/2021 at 4:13 PM, Jaguarek62 said:

it does work under 8.1 with some workaround: 

 

What was this if you don't mind me asking? The video got taken down

[mina7601]

6 hours ago, TheFighterJetDude said:

What was this if you don't mind me asking? The video got taken down

It was about running Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on Windows 8.1, but with a workaround.

[TheFighterJetDude]

5 hours ago, mina7601 said:

It was about running Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on Windows 8.1, but with a workaround.

I wasn't sure what the workaround was as the video got taken down.