Most Just Trains products have an installer that simply needs to be run to install the product into your simulator. These installers are usually delivered as .exe files although if a product is quite large it may be delivered as a .zip file. Some products may not have an installer and instead are provided as a Steam key.

Once you have determined what file type you have downloaded, or if you've just been given a key, you can follow the steps below:

I have a .exe file

If your download is a .exe file all you need to do is double-click the file and the installer will run. Once the installer window appears follow the instructions given by the installer to install the product.

I have a .zip file

If your download is a .zip file, you need to take some extra steps before being able to follow the instructions above - most of our .zip files contain a .exe or .msi installer file, the .zip file just compresses the contents so first they must be uncompressed.

In Windows 10/11 you should be able to do this without installing any additional applications by selecting the .zip file you've downloaded and clicking the "Extract all" option from the Explorer toolbar:

In the "Extract compressed folders" window that appears, you are able to select the location that you want to extract the contents of the .zip file to - in this instance leaving the location as it's default should be fine, it should create a new folder within the folder that the .zip file is located. You can also select to "Show extracted files when complete" to avoid the step below.

Once extracted, which may take a little time depending on file size, navigate to the files that have just been extracted and open the folder (or if you selected to show when complete a new Explorer window should have opened showing the contents):

Inside the folder (there may be an additional folder that you need to click into) you should find the setup.exe file, simply double-click this file to run the installer and follow the instructions for "I have a .exe file" above.

After you have installed the product you can delete the uncompressed folder to save storage space.

If you have any issues extracting the contents of a .zip file, or don't see an "Extract all" toolbar button, you may want to try a third-party file archiving utility, such as 7-Zip.

I have no download just a key code

This will be a Steam key and needs to be activating within the Steam app. If you have Train Simulator Classic or Train Sim World installed then you should already have Steam installed, if not then you will need to download the Steam application, install it and create an account/login to an existing account.

To activate a product in Steam, open the Steam application, and click the "Add a game, Activate a Product on Steam" option in the bottom left corner of the window.

You should be presented with a prompt asking for your product code like below, copy the key from your Just Trains account and paste into the Steam prompt.

Once entered and you click confirm, Steam should show you the product that has been activated on your account and offer to download or install the product. Simply follow the instructions provided by Steam to continue.

DLC products, i.e. those that add-on to Train Sim Classic or Train Sim World, don't show in the Steam Library separately so it may look like they haven't been installed - this is because they are DLC rather than standalone games. To check that a DLC product is installed, or to install it if you didn't choose to install after activation, you should right-click the host sim in your Steam Library game list and click "Properties".

In the properties window you will see a DLC tab that lists the content you have available and whether it is installed or not, like this example for Train Sim World 2020: