Re: Moving Program Files Folder

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"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:8amh849ehjk7u78s0ldihl7k8k86j5d9kt@xxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:52:02 +0100, "Samuel"
<samuel.shulman@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I would like to move the Program Files folder to another partition


First of all, why? Most people who do this do it because they think
that if they ever have to reinstall Windows, their installed programs
will be safe and won't have to be reinstalled.

I do it so that I can limit space usage across partitions. I know that I will not be able to use my programs after reinstall, but it does make it a cinch to reinstall straight over the top of them and sometimes that means that your program-related data is preserved.

They are wrong. Except for an occasional program (usually a small
one), all programs have many entries in the registry and associated
files and pointers to the programs within \Windows. If Windows is
reinstalled, all that is lost, and the programs have to be reinstalled
anyway.

They are wrong only if they did it for the exact reason you defined. Which I don't doubt many people do.


Unless yours is an unusual special situation, this is not a good idea;
for almost everyone it's best for installed programs to be in the same
partition as Windows.

Please explain why it is best. I have several "Program Files" folders across my partitions. Again, purely for space management. So I have:

C:\Program Files - which will contain common Windows stuff and anything OS-related - like AV etc,
F:\Program Files - which contains all of my normal office-type applications
G:\Program Files - contains any games
S:\Program Files - contains any simulators (flight sim etc)

JW

.

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