By Default, programs install in Program Files on 'C'. How can I change this to install on my External Hard Drive?How can I install Programs to Program Files on my External Hard Drive by default?After you back up your registry, this is how you can change this default location.
1. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
2. Find ProgramFilesDir whose default should be C:\Program Files
3. Change this to whatever directory you wish. I changed it to D:\Program Files for example.
Remember you have to reboot for your changes to show.How can I install Programs to Program Files on my External Hard Drive by default?Unless you use a program like %26quot;TweakUI%26quot; to do it, you have to go into Windows Registry and manually edit the default location as said above
However, you can NOT move programs ALREADY installed, and trying to do so is a royal PITA.
Also, remember that a lot of programs write app files to temp and user directories as they execute which will still be on C:, and this may be hardcoded in the program itself. Also, installations write variable strings into Windows environmental variables, which will need to be changed as well.
It seems the easiest way is to uninstall EVERYthing...change the default program file location...and then reinstall EVERYthing to the new location. See the links below in %26quot;know your source?%26quot; for more detailed discussion and some further pointers on partitions.
Cheers!
