You can also make symbolic links to folders inside another drive, so you can redirect anything to a secondary hard drive without having to mess with the Windows Registry. Like this:
Supposing you want to install MyApplication
under the D:\Apps
directory instead of the C:\Program Files\
, and suppose MyApplication
installs by default under C:\Program Files\MyApplication
.
- Create a new folder under
D:\Apps
(this is where you want to install the application - you can name it whatever you want).
- Start Menu → search
cmd.exe
→ Right click → Run as administrator
.
- Navigate to the
Program Files
directory: cd "C:\Program Files\"
(with quotes).
- Type
mklink /D MyApplication D:\Apps\MyApplication
(this is tricky: the first parameter after the /D
option is the name of the new link, which must be named exactly as the folder where the app tries to install; the second parameter is the name of the folder where you want to install the app, the one you created on step 1).
Now you have created a symbolic link that is named as the driectory where the app tries to install, and it links to another folder under drive D:\
which is where all the files will go.
Then you proceed to install your application normally, but all its files will go directly to the second drive because of the link between the directories. I've installed many apps like this and they work pretty well.
You cand use this method to link whatever directories you want (Documents, pictures, etc).
I have to mention that you can change the default folder where windows stores your Documents and Music by right-clicking on them and changing the Location directory; but this only works for folders inside your home directory (C:\Users\YourUserName) that windows uses for that sort of files.
Good Luck.