How to Change Location where New Apps will Install and Save to in Windows 10
In Windows 10, users can select where new Windows apps from the Store will install and save data to by default instead of on the default Windows "This PC (C)" drive location.
You can select to install new Windows apps to any internal or external drive, including SD cards, USB drives, and USB flash drives. You cannot use mapped network drives, and you can only use one location at a time to save apps to.
Windows 10 will only install new apps to the currently selected location. Existing apps do not get moved to the new location by default, but you can select to move apps to another drive.
If you disconnect the drive you selected to install Windows apps to, then any app installed to that drive will no longer work until the drive is connected again.
If you disconnect the drive you selected to install Windows apps to, then Windows will install new apps to This PC until the drive is connected again. Any apps installed to "This PC" during this time will remain on "This PC", and will not be moved to the other location.
Window will create the folders below on the root of the drive you selected to install new apps on. When a new Windows app from the Store is installed to the selected location, Windows 10 will create a WindowsApps folder at that location. The files and folders for apps in the WindowsApps folder will be encrypted with EFS, so no one but your account is able to access the data.
You will need to make sure that the new storage location has been formatted using NTFS before changing the save location to it.
This tutorial will show you how to change the location of where new Windows apps from the Store will install and save data to for your account in Windows 10.
For a Windows 11 version of this tutorial, see:
Change Where New Apps will Save to in Windows 11
Here's How:
1 Open the Settings app, and click/tap on the System icon.
2 Click/tap on Storage on the left side, and click/tap on the Change where new content is saved link under More storage settings on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Select the drive you want New apps will save to. (see screenshot below)
The default location is This PC for the Windows C: drive in the %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps (apps) and %LocalAppData%\Packages (user app data) folders.
If the storage locations are empty, then check to make sure that the Storage Service service is enabled and set to Start (running) and manual.
4 Click/tap on the Apply button to apply. (see screenshot below)
5 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- How to Move Apps to another Drive in Windows 10
- How to Enable or Disable Moving User App Data to Non-system Volumes in Windows 10
- How to Enable or Disable Changing Apps Save Location in Windows 10
- How to View Storage Usage of Drives in Windows 10
- How to Change Your Storage Save Locations in Windows 10
- How to Choose Where Apps can be Installed from in Windows 10