Hi
How do I get Windows to install programs on a separate drive?
My new PC has 2 SSD drives - C is for windows 10 and E is for programs.
I changed the registry settings for Program Files and Program Files (86) to drive E.
Programs still install on C.
Also when new programs are being installed, Windows does not give me the option of changing the location.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks
Hello, whilst there is a registry change you can make that lets you change that path, you will find you can never again apply a Windows upgrade or in-place upgrade repair.I changed the registry settings for Program Files and Program Files (86) to drive E.
This is not supported by MS and cannot be recommended.
Even if you do that, only parts of installed programs will be on the other drive. Other folders will be in various places under your user profile, and there will most likely be keys created in the registry.
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It is not Windows' responsibility to give you the opportunity to choose the install path. It is the author's decision as to whether that option is provided by the installer- or not.
Again, where that option is available, and you choose, say, D: only part of what is installed will be placed on D: and some files and folders may well be created on C:
Just curious as to why that is i understand markers placed for the direction of where the program is actually located but the markers should be invisible in some sort of registry entry not a file tree on C:
all info greatly appreciated
Hi, this seems confused. The relevant registry value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir
is a standard reference for installers. See:
In a standard Windows installation, the 'Program Files' directory will be at %SystemDrive%\Program Files (or the localized equivalent thereof), and the 'Common Program Files' (or the localized equivalent thereof) will be a subdirectory under 'Program Files'. In Windows Vista and later, the paths to the 'Program Files' and 'Common Program Files' directories are not localized on disk. Instead, the localized names are NTFS junction points to the non-localized locations. Additionally, the Windows shell localizes the name of the Program Files folder depending on the system's user interface display language.
Both 'Program Files' and 'Common Program Files' can be moved. At system startup, the actual paths to 'Program Files' and 'Common Program Files' are loaded from the Windows registry, where they are stored in the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. They are then made accessible to the rest of the system via the volatile environment variables %ProgramFiles%, and %CommonProgramFiles%. Applications can also obtain the locations of these paths by querying the Setup API using dirids, or through Windows Management Instrumentation, or by querying the shell using CSIDLs, or ShellSpecialFolderConstants. These are all localization-independent methods.
Program Files - Wikipedia
The particular path for a given program is held elsewhere and corresponds, of course, to what you see if you look for its installation folder using file explorer.
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