How To Change The Default Installation Folder In Windows

Are you running out of disk space on your C:\ drive? Do you have another hard drive or partition that has a ton of free space?

If you do and want to make better use of that free space, you can change the default program installation path to point to a folder on the drive or partition that has the free space. This way, when you install new applications or programs, they will automatically install to the new location with out needing to worry that you'll run out of disk space on your C:\ drive.

Now, this modification may not be for everyone. If you have plenty of available disk space where you normally install programs and apps, there is no need to change the default installation path (you can always change the path manually during installation).

For people who need to make this change, open up the registry editor, by clicking on Start \ Run and in the run box type regedit and click on OK .

NOTE: Follow the below steps exactly as specified and do not make any changes other than specified while in the Registry. Always create a System Restore point or backup of you Computer when making configuration changes.

• Next, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

• Make sure you have clicked on CurrentVersion , then on the right side, double click on ProgramsFilesDir (this is the value that sets the default install location).

• In the Edit String dialog box. change the path in the Value data: field to the new default install location, and click OK .

• Close Regedit

Now, the next time you install an application or program, the new default installation path will be used:

And you won't need to worry about running out of disk space during installation.