Possible to move windows to d drive?

It really is rather meaningless generally to install programs on another disk or partition.

Programs create many folders, possibly install drivers, create start menu shortcuts and startup data - the location of which is all out of your control.

Then there are the registry keys which can run to 100s.

All these are inevitably and inextricably mixed with Windows, alas.

I quite agree with you- maintenance of the O/S should be separate from installed programs. But it's not. That's not something that could be changed without a substantial adjustment of O/S architecture.

Now consider reliabilty, and what would happen if the disk to which you install programs fails. What would you be left with on C: ? All manner of bits and pieces- and you may then not be able to run the program's uninstaller.

You would be forced to strictly maintain a robust backup process for BOTH disks, backing them up at the same point.

Further, some programs simply give you no option to specify the installation path- or it's hard to find.

Further, how much space you gain as a proportion of the program's size on disk on your system disk by doing this is out of your control- it depends how the program is structured.

A better way - that also helps to address finding things.

Keep personal data off C: and on a separate disk or partition- separate from O/S maintenance. Then it's not affected should you restore a disk image of the O/S.

By creating and using your own folders, you don't get, as you do in the default Documents, Photos etc folders created by installed programs.

That means your data is under your control. Index the whole of your data disk- and searching is a doddle.

It is not possible really to do what OP wants to do per se.

You can certainly hae a dual boot version i.e. two installations but which ever one is selected will always be assigned C as its drive, as drive letters are dynamically allocated during boot up.

I have a 1TB HDD on my main computer split as 150GB C: and 780GB D:, I frequently Custom install third-party programs on D: without issue. I do avoid creating a Program Files folder and a Program Files (x86) folder on the D: drive just to avoid any possible confusion with the default folders on the C: system drive, just D:\Software name, pretty much the same as used to do with DOS computers.

silverz said:

The reason is that I find the windows drive usually gets cluttered with junk that becomes hard to find and remove and over time I lose more and more space to unnecessary garbage that is not practical to manually remove.

Your desired change will not alter how much there is. It will only alter where it is.

silverz said:

... I find many programs default to installing files in the C drive ...

Do they really?
Or are some stubbornly defaulting to the C:\ drive whilst others default to the drive & path identified by the %ProgramFiles% or %ProgramFiles(x86)% variables [which is what they all ought always to be doing]?
And are their uninstall manifests written the same way or might they default differently?

SIW2 said:

It is possible to have your letter of choice as the os letter.

I agree with SIW2. I have also seen another drive letter being used by the running-installed Windows [it was by accident but it nevertheless demonstrated that it was possible].


Denis

Megahertz said:

Use Kari tutorial (attached)

I think a direct link to tutorial works better: Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10

Kari