New to W10, apps installing on secondary drive?

Hey all, before I get comments... yes Im new to windows 10, i dislike change 😂

Anyways... I was and have been using w8.1.. recently formatted my PC SSD and went the w10 route.. so I have a huge learning curve to deal with..

1st.. when I was using w8.1, i had OS/Cdrive installed on a partition on my SSD and then closed off the rest and made all downloads go to a different HD to prevent "issues"

Since I changed to W10 OS, it seems like I need to re-download EVERYTHING.. is there a way to make w10 search for programs on other drives to add them (drivers/default apps...) it seems like every time I tried to download an app, windows created unwanted folders on my (D) drive rather then C where all my "storage" is pointing...

2nd.. less important, is there an easier way then using a VM to "clone" my 8.1 "user profile" and copying it over to my 10 "user profile" so i have the desktop layout / extentions working properly instead of starting over?

Thank you kindly for Wisewiz, Berton & Idgat for heeding my cry of confusion and contrite!

Wisewiz said:

If you formatted your system drive, which should be your C: drive, you've lost the registry from 8.1, as well as all of the files that were in the Program Files and ProgramData folders. You don't just have to re-download EVERYTHING, you need to RE-INSTALL everything.

I DID happen to back up JUST my "OS" partition of my 8.1 using macrium in case i needed to access either .dll/system files for issues.. which in fact I attempted and was able to transfer over my "user profile" from 8.1 - 10.. although god awful, a redneck work around for needing them pesky un-organized desktop links to games/files...

Wisewiz said:

No, you can't just copy your 8.1 user profile to Windows 10. They're different animals. Entirely. If you had upgraded instead of formatting, you'd have a good chance of retaining most of what you had running on 8.1, but it's gone now.

^^^ attempted and redneck-seeded.. haha

Wisewiz said:

And here's what baffles me: " it seems like every time I tried to download an app, windows created unwanted folders on my (D) drive rather then C where all my "storage" is pointing..." Your "storage" shouldn't be on C: in the first place, and those unwanted folders that are being created are being created on your system drive, because you haven't re-directed the installers to your "storage" drive.

These two passages bewilder me: "when I was using w8.1, i had OS/Cdrive installed on a partition on my SSD" and "windows created unwanted folders on my (D) drive rather then C where all my "storage" is".

You can't have your OS on the C: drive, and also have your "storage" on the C: drive.

Did you install your programs to D: on 8.1, and keep your OS on C:, or did you have your OS on D: and installed programs on C:?

this I apologies to everyone for.. it was late/early depending on your view.. but what i MEANT was

I had a partition of my SSD Locked off (with OS) which was labeled as C: drive.. so i call it my "C: drive" to which i have NOTHING installed that's outside the 8.1 OS, i had all my install/drive links directed towards the files on my desktop (c:) so it was confusing and i'm sorry..

but the issue I was having was anytime i tried to install anything in windows 10 (apps) the directories would be stored on my D: drive which I had configured as an organized file drive (i have about 10TB of storage on my rig which I have organization on them and am particular of what gets stored where) so hence when I install something with windows 10 I was confused why it created folder locations on a completely separate drive of where the "storage settings" were directed

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idgat said:

"Made ... go to a different HD"?? How - manual (user) or automatic?

made as, when dowloading / installing you were able to select the "download folder" or "install location" for each program you used

idgat said:

No, but for the run-of-the-mill programs you could try Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once

thanks for the suggestion!

idgat said:

How did you "change" to Win 10 - clean install or in-situ upgrade from 8.x ?

after using macrium reflect to create a mirror of my partition for recovery I whiped my SSD and started with a clean install

idgat said:

What "folders"? Folders relating to the program being installed? was it Windows that created the folders, or the program being installed?

yea, i since them reverted back to my 8.1 restore but anytime i tried to install files to associate programs or files with from my other drives it was creating folders on my "d" (completely seperate HDD) called like "appdownloads" (cant remember exactly what w10 names the folders as to which it stored the directories in)

idgat said:

What do you mean by this? What "extensions" aren't working properly?

for example.. my AVI/MP3/M-PEG I used VLC ( installed on another drive but wouldn't recognize it in my windows "default" list.. or my Photoshop edits / or my Ableton produces.. pretty much anything that I had PRE - installed on another HDD was not recognized and W10 directed me to download and install the associated "APP"

idgat said:

If it's what i think it is, it's just one of Win 10's many foibles - it'll want to take over extensions from 3rd party software to Windows software, unless changed by the user (e.g. I used to get sick and tired of re-re-re-capturing .pdf from Edge to Adobe Acrobat every time there was a major update; every time I want to change the default browser way from Edge, there was an in-your-face "Try Edge" before it would it would accept the change). That's just the nature of the beast

As i assumed with all of Microsoft's creations it became an "infallible" nightmare, that I had issues overcoming haha

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Berton said:

As for installing Windows-based programs, I have a 1TB HDD split as 150GB for C: with Windows 10 [came as Win 8 and Upgrade] and 780GB for D: Data. I have done Custom installs, where given a choice, on D: so as to save space on C: plus set all Browser downloads to a Folder on D: named ~Downloads to distinguish from the defaults.

As i try to make certain folders and destinations but i created the W10 I was attempting similar to this but the downloads kept directing themselves to somewhere I didn't want

It is still very confusing: It sounds like you are attempting to 'use' programs previously installed on a separate drive/partition, under a different OS, without re-installing them.

403Phaze said:

...pretty much anything that I had PRE - installed on another HDD was not recognized and W10 directed me to download and install the associated "APP"

This is bound to lead to problems. After a clean install of W10 (which I think you did, but you may since have reverted to W8) you need to install all programs from scratch - however tedious that may seem. You can point W10 to the installation programs for other software, but in general you cannot simply point it to an existing 'installed' program and expect success.

Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 upgrade is actually a new OS install.

To keep it simple you would have everything installed on your OS drive and partition, which means that all programs will work once the new version 10 is installed.

That would be the aim before trying to upgrade to Windows 10. KISS principles.

This was the case for my Laptop which came with Windows 8.1 apart that is from a manufacturers recovery partition (~10 GB) containing Windows 8.1 which was just left as is until later.

Cloning old Windows 8.1 user profiles to Windows 10 profiles is a non-starter. The time interval is around 7 years in which case many things would have changed.

"Since I changed to W10 OS, it seems like I need to re-download EVERYTHING.. is there a way to make w10 search for programs on other drives to add them (drivers/default apps...) it seems like every time I tried to download an app, windows created unwanted folders on my (D) drive rather then C where all my "storage" is pointing..."

That was because of what you had done in Windows 8.1 which is rather a mystery which only you will know about.

All those drives, a complicated mess.

"I had a partition of my SSD Locked off (with OS) which was labeled as C: drive.. so i call it my "C: drive" to which i have NOTHING installed that's outside the 8.1 OS,"

That can never be true as there are many references in Windows 8.1 on drive C: to what has been installed in another partition/drive, it is not in isolation.