How? how do you change path of program files

[bradpitt]

So, in windows how would you change the path of the program files directory. like when you install a program it automatically puts in c:\program files\blah .... but i want to install another hard drive and use that as my program files directory.

i know you can mount a hard drive to a folder in windows xp. but i tried to replace my desktop with a hard drive but failed... i renamed my desktop folder and made a new desktop folder... didn't work 🙁 i'm probably doing something wrong 😛

edit: i would want not to use a 3rd party program... unless that program doesn't run at start up, meaning it just edits some configuration and then its done


edit2: looks like "You can change the location of the entire "My Documents" folder. That is not what you asked. But, just in case you did not know!
Click on Start and right click on My Documents. Then, select "Properties". Then, click on "Move"."
will work

edit3: edit 2 didn't work.. only for my documents

 

[Nothinman]

You can't, at least not easily. You would most likely have go through the registry and rename every reference to c:\ to the new location, reboot and hope for the best.

 

[watek]

if you goto kelly corners webpage...one of her tweaks is changing the program files location. Make you copy all your programs from c:\ to the new one before.

 

[kamper]

Or you could just install all your programs on the next drive and leave the stuff that's already in "Program Files" where it is. A common configuration is to use a D: partition as a place to install programs, but you usually leave all the silly ms stuff that insists on being in a particular location where it likes to be.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You can't, at least not easily. You would most likely have go through the registry and rename every reference to c:\ to the new location, reboot and hope for the best.

Actually it is quite simple. Simply go to this key in the registry (start >> run >> "regedit")

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]

Now change "ProgramFilesDir" to the location you wish. Note that you must move the Windows Update Folder to this new location or Windows Update will not work properly.

 

[Nothinman]

Now change "ProgramFilesDir" to the location you wish. Note that you must move the Windows Update Folder to this new location or Windows Update will not work properly.

Have you ever actually looked and seen how many registry keys reference "drive:\program files" directly? Doing the above will most likely work with a few apps and it will most likely affect future app installs, but it will break a lot of stuff.

 

[KoolDrew]

Yes it may cause problems with current installations like I said but if you did that right after a reformat it won't cause any problems as it is the default directory for newly installed applications. (C://Program Files). I myself find it stupid to put all your apps on a seperate partision. I find it easier to just have 2 drives and use one for storage and the other one big NTFS partision for games, apps and OS. Many people split up there partisions for games, apps, OS and storage as they say it will not get fragmented as much and will provide betetr performance which is BS and it causes problems with some porrly written programs.

So I suggest when you do get a 2nd hard drive just use that as a storage drive and keep OS, apps and all the rest of the stuff on the master.

 

[hopejr]

I've successfully moved my Program Files and Documents and Settings to different partitions and just mounted them to the original paths in c:. It took me weeks to get it right and involved using safe mode command prompt, registry editor, uninstalling and reinstalling some programs, and lots of headaches. It finally worked but wasn't worth the effort IMO. Just install everything to a second partition but keep the Program Files folder in c:.
The main problem was that I created a new program files folder, but it's short name was progra~2 instead of progra~1. This stuffed up Norton Systemworks and related software because the paths in the registry that the use have the short name instead of the long name (most programs use the long name). If you don't have any symantec software, you should be ok, but it's still a lot of work.

 

[bradpitt]

i'm just worried about my main hard drive running out of space ... i'm gonna get a36gb raptor and then have to partitions.. one for 64 bit windows and the other for regular

but i just checked the size of my current program files dir.. its only 9 gigs... so i guess its not that bad