How To Change Program Files Location In Windows 11

BORA AL said:

Seven years ago, I got on Ten Forums to find a solution for changing Win 10's forcible installation path from drive C to D, and I made it by following a post on Ten Forums saying some certain modification of registry would work. That is, to merge into the Registry this entry：

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]

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1. Ensure that you have access to a local account that has administrative privileges. A full backup is always a good idea before attempting something like this.
2. Reboot into the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
   1. From the Windows 10 settings app, select “Update & Security,” select the “Recovery” tab on the left, and then click the “Restart now” button in the center pane.
   2. Alternatively, you can hold down the Shift key while performing a restart of Windows.
3. Once in the recovery environment, select “Choose Troubleshoot (Reset your PC or see advanced options).”
4. Choose “Advanced Options.”
5. Choose “Command Prompt.”
6. Select your local administrator account, and enter the password.
7. Use the RoboCopy command to move the Program Files directory to another drive. Assuming the destination drive is D:, the command will be
   • robocopy.exe "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files" /b /copyall /e /move /sj /sl /r:2 /w:10
8. You can repeat the previous step for the “Program Files (x86)” and “ProgramData” folders.
9. If all files can be moved by RoboCopy, you should no longer have the directories present on the C: drive.
   • If the directories are still present, you will need to rename them to something else, so that a symbolic link can be created.
10. Create a directory symbolic link (SYMLINKD) on drive C: that points to the Program Files directory on drive D:. This will eliminate the need to update any registry entries, environment variables, shortcuts, etc., once Windows is restarted.
    • mklink /d "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"
11. You can repeat the previous step for the “Program Files (x86)” and “ProgramData” folders.
12. Type exit in the command prompt, and press Enter.
13. Choose the option to boot into Windows.

Try3 said:

I thought that OP said in post #7 that you had to do both the Wow6432Node Key and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

And do consider the symbolic link solution suggested by @Topgundcp in his post #5.


Denis

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pseymour said:

I second the idea of the symbolic link. That will handle the cases where some app has a reference to the C: drive folder in a private configuration file, or any number of places in the registry. It also handles any cases of developers just assuming the path is on C:.

Edit: I found the instructions I wrote up for Windows 10. The process is nearly identical for Windows 11.

1. Ensure that you have access to a local account that has administrative privileges. A full backup is always a good idea before attempting something like this.
2. Reboot into the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
   1. From the Windows 10 settings app, select “Update & Security,” select the “Recovery” tab on the left, and then click the “Restart now” button in the center pane.
   2. Alternatively, you can hold down the Shift key while performing a restart of Windows.
3. Once in the recovery environment, select “Choose Troubleshoot (Reset your PC or see advanced options).”
4. Choose “Advanced Options.”
5. Choose “Command Prompt.”
6. Select your local administrator account, and enter the password.
7. Use the RoboCopy command to move the Program Files directory to another drive. Assuming the destination drive is D:, the command will be
   • robocopy.exe "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files" /b /copyall /e /move /sj /sl /r:2 /w:10
8. You can repeat the previous step for the “Program Files (x86)” and “ProgramData” folders.
9. If all files can be moved by RoboCopy, you should no longer have the directories present on the C: drive.
   • If the directories are still present, you will need to rename them to something else, so that a symbolic link can be created.
10. Create a directory symbolic link (SYMLINKD) on drive C: that points to the Program Files directory on drive D:. This will eliminate the need to update any registry entries, environment variables, shortcuts, etc., once Windows is restarted.
    • mklink /d "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"
11. You can repeat the previous step for the “Program Files (x86)” and “ProgramData” folders.
12. Type exit in the command prompt, and press Enter.
13. Choose the option to boot into Windows.

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gunrunnerjohn said:

I think I'll just leave my Program Files on C:.

Don't Fix Stuff That Ain't Broken!

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gunrunnerjohn said:

Just curious, what are the perceived benefits of moving Program Files, etc. to a different logical drive?

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gunrunnerjohn said:

Just curious, what are the perceived benefits of moving Program Files, etc. to a different logical drive?

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mngerhold said:

If your computer is old, then a possible failure might be the disk itself - in which case a ghost image on a partition on the same physical disk would be of no use. In your shoes I'd add a backup disk to save images on, and forget about changing the program files path. You will struggle to fill a 1 TB disk, even with W11.

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BORA AL said:

Hi friend, my computer is old and the disk is only 1 TB. I don't want to make drive C too big or full. Another thing is that I have left a drive G in the disk end to preserve drive C's image (.gho) made thru some ghost tool when the Win system works properly, for restoring drive C in case the system doesn't work properly. Therefore it's better not make C too big or full. Hope you can understand me.
Thank you.

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gunrunnerjohn said:

I guess I have to wonder what you're loading into your machine! I have a bunch of applications, some of them pretty sizeable, and my 500GB Windows drive still has plenty of space. Backup time is a few minutes most times, maybe a bit longer when it's going to a HDD on the NAS, but that's only once a week and it happens in the background.

I do wonder what people are so worked up in what restore time is for an image in the event of a Windows issue, if that's happening enough to be a problem, you need to rethink more than the size of the Windows disk. I have occasionally had to use an image backup, but certainly not often enough for me to obsess over how much time it takes to restore. If it takes me half an hour to restore a system image, that's fine with me.

You mention an image in a separate partition on your physical Windows drive, that seems a bit shortsighted. If you have a disk issue, you lose your boot drive and your backup! Why not put the G: drive on a separate physical drive and expand the Windows partition to use that space? IMO that makes a lot more sense than scattering the Windows applications around. I'm a firm advocate of the K.I.S.S. principle, and it's a whole lot simpler to just keep Windows and the applications on the C: drive where most application creators expect them to be.

If an application has a portable version that doesn't sacrifice functionality, I'll normally pick that, they're all "installed" in a separate folder that's not tied to the Windows partition. However, stuff that's installed using typical Windows installation processes almost always has tentacles into the registry and more, moving those just seems to be asking for issues down the road for no gain.

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gunrunnerjohn said:

Funny, I used to use Norton GHOST many years ago, I haven't even heard that name for some time! There are lots of more capable image backup solutions nowadays.

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gunrunnerjohn said:

I use Hasleo Backup Suite, it's a free utility. I also use Acronis True Image for some computers, I've used it for years. Either one has a bootable USB option to restore if you have issues booting your system and need to restore a backup.

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Spunk said:

Norton Ghost was discontinued in 2013 by Symantec.
The world has moved on. As stated, The Free version of Hasleo Backup Suite is really great.
The paid versions of other software Acronis, Easeus, among others work well, but cost.. As stated, Whatever you use, create a Bootable USB Flash drive from the app to create your image outside of Windows.

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gunrunnerjohn said:

Funny, I used to use Norton GHOST many years ago,

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