Changing Program Files in Registry to point to a drive other than "C"

If I change program files and program file x86 in the registry to point to "D" instead of "C" I understand that all new programs loaded will go to "D". Questions I have are do I need to create a program directory on "D" like there is on "C" first. 2nd question if II do this will the old programs that are still on "C" still work? If this is so then programs both on "C" and "D" will execute correctly?
Hanks,
Bill

wsm said:

If I change program files and program file x86 in the registry to point to "D" instead of "C" I understand that all new programs loaded will go to "D". Questions I have are do I need to create a program directory on "D" like there is on "C" first. 2nd question if II do this will the old programs that are still on "C" still work? If this is so then programs both on "C" and "D" will execute correctly?
Hanks,
Bill

Click to expand...

I don't recommend changing the installation directory. I tried that once and it was hell. It caused me so many problems, that I just done a complete clean install.

wsm said:

If I change program files and program file x86 in the registry to point to "D" instead of "C" I understand that all new programs loaded will go to "D". Questions I have are do I need to create a program directory on "D" like there is on "C" first. 2nd question if II do this will the old programs that are still on "C" still work? If this is so then programs both on "C" and "D" will execute correctly?
Hanks,
Bill

Click to expand...

When installing a program, it will ask "where" you want to install it.
Make a folder on the D: drive or partition called: ProgramZ or something, and during the install, when it asks where you want to install... browse to that location.
Then the installer will install the program there.

This works out much better, than trying to move Program Files (x86) or Program Files.

For example... I made folders on my F: drive to install my games into...
I used three Z's in the folder names, so they would all stay together in the list of folders on the F: drive.

Ghot said:

When installing a program, it will ask "where" you want to install it.
Make a folder on the D: drive or partition called: ProgramZ or something, and during the install, when it asks where you want to install... browse to that location.
Then the installer will install the program there.

This works out much better, than trying to move Program Files (x86) or Program Files.

Click to expand...

Problem, a lot if not most of the programs I download and install do not ask you where you want to load them they just go to where the registery sends them which is drive "C". For example, Firefox, Thunderbird 4kvideodownloader.

Bill, may I ask what the goal of this exercise is and why you want to relocate these specific folders to another drive? Is it that you are running low on disk space on C:? I'm just curious to understand why you want to do this.

To my thinking, rather than making registry changes, I would think that creating a symbolic link might be far more liely to succeed. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) There are likely to be hundreds, if not thousands of references to those folders in the registry, and I could imagine that getting everything might be a nearly impossible task.

2) By using a symbolic link, you would not need to change any registry settings, or any other program settings. Programs, the registry, etc. could still reference "C:\Program Files" for instance, but they would be directed to the location pointed to by the symbolic link, such as "D:\Program Files". In other words, this change would be transparant to the apps and to Windows.

Possible problems

First, let me note that this is something I have never tried. I'm simply throwing out possible ideas here. But, one of the big questions that I have is this: What happens if I create a symbolic link, in effect redirecting these folders to D:? As soon as you do that, everything will try to access that new location even before you get to move the data to that location. Will that cause an immediate problem? I have no idea.

This might take some more research and some testing. Some suggestions: If you have the ability to do so, consider testing this on a VM to see what happens. Also, I would stringly suggest making a disk image backup of the OS drive before you do so that you can easily revert back if this goes terribly wrong.

Maybe some others have thoughts on this topic that are far better than what I have, but I hope that this helps.

I wrote myself some notes a few years ago on ther topic of junctions, symbolic links, etc. Below is just a raw copy of those notes - maybe that will help to at least explain my thinking here.

------------------

Shortcuts, Symbolic Links, Hard Links, and Junctions

A shortcut is a file that points to another file. It is an antiquated pointing system from the Windows 95 era that many programs do not recognize. Shortcuts do not only use up space on the hard drive, but they also break and linger behind after the deletion, renaming or moving of the target.

A symbolic link is like a shortcut, but instead of being saved as a file it is registered to the hard drive partition. It does not use any disk space, and all programs recognize both the link and the target. A symbolic link can point to any file or folder either locally on the computer or over a network using an SMB path.

NOTE: What Windows calls a Symbolic Link is often referred to as a Soft Link.

A file hard link is a little different and cannot be used over multiple partitions meaning you cannot have a link on drive C: pointing to a file on drive D:. A file hard link points to and duplicates a target as a mirrored copy, but the duplicate does not use any additional space on the hard drive partition. So, two hard links that mirror a 1 GB file would in total only use 1 GB on the partition rather than 3 GB. Importantly if either the hard links or the target were deleted, the other links retain the data. Changes to the content of either the target or the links automatically propagate to all other items.

A junction behaves like a hard link for directories, but unlike file hard links you can create junctions that span multiple partitions. Again, a directory junction and its content are stored on the hard drive partition, but they do not use any additional space. Any changes to the content within either the target or the links will automatically propagate except where the target directory is deleted or renamed. In that case, all links that point to the target will break and linger on the partition.
--------------------
There is a difference between how Junctions, Symbolic Links and Volume Mountpoints are treated when performing file system operations such as move/copy etc. If you create a Symbolic Link, and you then move that link it is much the same as a shortcut in that it just moves the link itself, no actual data is moved/copied.

However, if you move a Junction or Volume Mountpoint, a new folder is created at the move destination point and the contents of the original data folder is physically moved from its source location to the new move location. The Junction or Volume Mountpoint remains where it was, and the source folder remains intact (it just becomes empty).
----------------------
Creating Symbolic Links (Symlinks) and Directory Junctions in Windows

To create a symbolic link, run the following command from an elevated command prompt:

mklink Link Target

For a directory (folder), use this syntax:

mklink /D Link Target

Example: You have a folder D:\MyFolder that you want to make visible as C:\MyFolder. Run this command:

Mklink /d C:\MyFolder D:\MyFolder

In this example, the TARGET is the location that already contains the data. Note that the LINK cannot already exist. When the mklink command is run, it will create the link.

To create a hard link for a file, use this syntax:

mklink /H Link Target

For a hard link to a directory (folder), also known as a directory junction, use this syntax:

mklink /J Link Target

IMPORTANT: The "Link" in a directory symbolic link or directory junction SHOULD NOT ALREADY EXIST when you run this command and the "Target" SHOULD already exist.

NOTE: If you are going to reference a location that has no drive letter or has a drive letter subject to change, for example, with removable media, you can reference the volume GUID. For example, \\?\Volume{01005fc0-799f-11e9-8145-001583eeba66}\. You can get the volume GUID by running the command "mountvol".

Example:

Using the example of the Plex desktop app which is hard coded to save downloaded media to the location %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\Plex Media Server\Sync\, let’s say we want to store this on D:\Plex Downloads. Create a directory junction like this:

mklink /J "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\Plex Media Server\Sync\" "D:\Plex Downloads"

Now, even though Plex is hard coded to save downloaded media to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\Plex Media Server\Sync\", it will actually be stored on "D:\Plex Downloads".

To display all symbolic links and junction points

This command will display all symbolic links and junction points on C:\ and all subdirectories:

DIR /AL /S C:\

/A : Displays all files with a specific attribute
L: Specifies Reparse Points (symlinks and directory junctions)
/S: Recursive search to find files and folders in and within specified directory

wsm said:

Problem, a lot if not most of the programs I download and install do not ask you where you want to load them they just go to where the registery sends them which is drive "C". For example, Firefox, Thunderbird 4kvideodownloader.

Click to expand...

Most (like 99%) of programs will let you choose. You may have to select "Custom" or something... but it's usually in there.
Here's Thunderbird for example...




I just created a folder on the F: drive called : ZZZ Thunderbird... then during the install... all I had to do was choose Custom and then "browse" to the folder I created.

Doing it this way... the installer makes all the necessary registry entries for the custom install directory.


Best of all, you don't have to re-install everything at once. Start installing all new programs on your D: drive.
Then... anytime you have some spare time... uninstall another program from C: and re-install it on D:

Pretty soon you'll have them all moved, the registry will be happy, and best of all... Windows will be happy.




ALL drivers, should be installed on the C: drive. And there are one or two small programs, like 7-zip (I think), which won't give you the option of where to install.
I'm not sure if Windows Apps, give you a choice... I only use a few of them, and I haven't installed ANY of them.

In this video, i will show you how to change the default installation location for programs on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

I’ve read a good reason to keep your apps on a different drive was in case the OS gets corrupted. I separated a 2 TB drive into 3 partitions but so far redirecting new ones to D hasn’t worked. I was going to use E for data.

blochtalk said:

I’ve read a good reason to keep your apps on a different drive was in case the OS gets corrupted.

Click to expand...

Then restore the last good system image instead.

Denis

blochtalk said:

I’ve read a good reason to keep your apps on a different drive was in case the OS gets corrupted. I separated a 2 TB drive into 3 partitions but so far redirecting new ones to D hasn’t worked. I was going to use E for data.

Click to expand...

Who ever wrote that is talking absolute bollards.

If OS gets corrupted and you reinstall, it will have no links to the programs in the registry and you will have to completely reinstall as you will never be able to rebuild registry.

Keep OS+programs on C drive - data on others.

Portable programs (ones which do not use registry) can be moved to save drive space.

You can move the user directories if you wish - easy enough to reinstate.

Regarding OS corruption - learn how to make image backups to a separate physical drive (or external usb drive),

blochtalk said:

I’ve read a good reason to keep your apps on a different drive was in case the OS gets corrupted. I separated a 2 TB drive into 3 partitions but so far redirecting new ones to D hasn’t worked. I was going to use E for data.

Click to expand...

Demonstrates a complete ignorance of the structure of software installed in a Windows environment. If the OS gets corrupted, installed programs - no matter where - are also compromised.

idgat said:

Demonstrates a complete ignorance of the structure of software installed in a Windows environment. If the OS gets corrupted, installed programs - no matter where - are also compromised.

Click to expand...

Not for portable programs necessarily.

blochtalk said:

I’ve read a good reason to keep your apps on a different drive was in case the OS gets corrupted. I separated a 2 TB drive into 3 partitions but so far redirecting new ones to D hasn’t worked. I was going to use E for data.

Click to expand...

It's really only the data which needs to be on a different drive from the OS. Since I started doing that, it has saved my bacon several times, and simplified OS upgrades and reinstalls. As Cerberus says in his customary forthright manner, trying to separate out the program files onto a different drive doesn't solve the problem because of all the links in the registry on the OS drive, without which the program won't run properly.

What is the advantage of it? Does the op mean a different disk or a different partition on the same disk ?