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My question

  • Is there a program for Windows 7 which can completely move C:/Program Files to D:/Program Files without losing all the registry connections, so ending up with a working D:/Program Files?

Any help would be great

2 Answers 2

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I think the only safe way to do this would be to un-install your applications and then re-install them on the D: drive, although core Windows files will still be written to the C: drive (assuming you have Windows installed to the C: drive)

This probably isn't what you wanted to hear. I'm not aware of a program that would be able to do this for you as it would need to know how each application was put together, what files it accessed and which registry keys or other configuration files it uses.

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  • Bear in mind that some programs don't offer you the choice of where you want them installed. This is bad programming on the part of the developer, but unfortunately quite common.
    – ChrisF
    Aug 17, 2010 at 11:01
  • ... especially in Microsoft applications...
    – lajuette
    Aug 17, 2010 at 11:26
  • Yup, both of the above are true, the author might want to include some more details as to what problem they are trying to solve. I think we are assuming that it's due to a C: drive that has run out of space! Aug 17, 2010 at 12:12
  • The reason is that I don't want to polute my C drive to much. In a few days I will have a new sdd hdd (crucial 300c) and I want to keep it only for windows and windows core applications
    – Chris
    Aug 17, 2010 at 14:05
  • 1
    If you're adding an SSD you'll want to do a clean format rather than cloning the partition anyway to make sure it's aligned properly. I recommend manual reinstalls.
    – Shinrai
    Aug 17, 2010 at 14:21
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Some "fixed" Windows folders can be redirected by the system. See this for instructions. I don't think Program Files is one of them...

But, you could manually force a redirect by moving all the folders and files to their desired location and create a symbolic link from the old location. This means you still have a "fake" ProgFiles folder in C, but the files are really stored elsewhere - as a bonus there's no registry messing to do because this will still work as though the fake ProgFiles is the real one.

Here's a post I found describing how to move all the contents of your User folder using symlinks, the procedure is effectively the same but just using the ProgFiles folder instead.

However, moving everything so that you can delete the original ProgFiles folder to create the linked one will probably be rather difficult - I would imagine this would require booting to a live CD or recovery disk of some type to ensure nothing inside program files is being used.

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