Comments on: XP: Change Default Installation Directory

By: shruthi

shruthi — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:41:38 +0000

hey, i did al the above. But when i changed the drive to other drive n restart the system n tried to install the softwares . . Its showing the path cannot be found n the regedit also not opening. Its showing windows cannot find the regedit. . Wat to do ?

By: adam

adam — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:46:00 +0000

I got this working on Windows 7 64 bit. Here’s what I did:
In addition to the registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion you also need to change the ones in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion.
Then, you need to copy all the files in c:Program files (x86) and c:program files to where ever your new locations are. Then don’t delete the original directories, since not all programs are smart enough to make the switch.
Obviously, this works best on a fresh install where the program file directories are only a few hundred megabytes.
Any (well, most) new programs you install will figure out that your new location is the default program files directory.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 23:13:00 +0000

Great information. Thank you.

By: Christa

Christa — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:46:00 +0000

Just wondering if the two hard drive idea works with a hard drive that’s partitioned or if it has to be two separate pieces of hardware. I’m thinking about doing this but if it only keeps things faster when it’s two separate pieces of hardware, then I can’t do it right now.

By: Josejijo172

Josejijo172 — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:35:00 +0000

thkzz man u r my hero

By: Benallott

Benallott — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:46:00 +0000

keep in mind this will move all shortcuts of already installed programs
so go to (original location):Program Files and copy all the (New Location):(Folder Name)

e.g. (old) C:Program Files -> D:Me App Files

By: lewis

lewis — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:49:00 +0000

hey this would fix all my problems but i tried to do it i cant find any file called programfiledr in program files in my c: drive , i use windows xp but i cant find that file , is there somewere else it could be ?

By: fatemeh

fatemeh — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:37:00 +0000

Thank you so much ! It helped me a lot !!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:51:00 +0000

Hello, to anybody that looks at this and can possibly solve my problem. I realize that this changes the default installation directory for programs you download off the internet. What I desperately and dearly need to know is how to change it for a CD. If anyone has the answer, I would be very greatful if you could tell me. Thank you.

By: Jack Richard

Jack Richard — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:18:00 +0000

Thank you very much.