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I have exactly the same problem. I've written multiple tickets to Microsoft, MS Flight Sim team and Aerosoft and nobody wants to help. Apparently when you use the retail physical version you don't get the certificate of digital ownership, so you can't download from the store and you need not only the activation code, but also the first DVD inserted, to "prove" that you are the owner. That threw me 20 years back. It also turns out that in order to play the game you always have to insert the 1st DVD before you start. So people are making images of the DVD and mounting them, but that's impossible if you don't have a device. So Microsoft won't give us digital ownership, won't provide an already created image file so we can start the game that way - we're left with unboxed copies of the game and used up activation codes.