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By default, programs in Windows are installed on system disk into the “Program Files” category, and games sometimes create a “Games” category on the system disk.
But if programs can still be installed on the system disk, then games have nothing to do on it.
And here the question arises: “How to change the installation path of programs in Windows”, so that programs and games can be installed in the directory we need?”
I already wrote about how to clear the system disk, this article to some extent also relates to the topic of free space on the system disk.
Many novice users install programs without changing the installer settings, because they believe that this is correct. Some users even install games without changing the installation directory. But you should do this only if you really need it, and not because the installer wants it.
It is clear that programmers, in order to make life easier for users, have foreseen everything in advance and configured the applications so that the user only needs to press the “OK” or “Next” buttons and the program will be installed. But if you want your computer to be in order, then install programs correctly.
If your system disk is very small and there is enough logical space, then there is no point in installing everything on the system disk. You need to configure the installer so that programs are installed on a larger disk.
How to change the installation path of a program using the application installer.
Most often, you can change the installation directory during the installation of the application itself, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s Photoshop or some kind of game, just don’t rush to click “Next”.
During the installation process of the program, you will see a window similar to this where you will be asked in which directory to install the program.
In this window you will see where the program will be installed by default and what you need to do to change this path. And also how much space is available on the disk and how much the program needs to install.
To change the drive and directory for installing the application, click the “Browse” button,
and select another drive in which to create new folder for your program.
Usually one directory is enough for all applications and one for all toys on the computer. After this, the program will be installed in the directory you need.
Naturally, some files will still be copied to the system disk, but this will take up noticeably less disk space than the entire application.
How to change the installation path of programs by editing the registry.
You can also change the drive and directory for installing programs using the registry. Only in this case, all applications will be installed in the new default directory.
This is convenient to do if you have little space on your system drive and need to install all applications on another drive. Plus this method Another problem is that not all applications offer to select a directory for installation and are silently loaded into the default directory. This way you will already know where all applications are installed.
In order to change the installation directory through the registry, open the registry and follow the path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Having opened the desired registry branch, on the right we find the string parameter: ProgramFilesDir. In my example, the path for installing programs is written: C:\Program Files. You are most likely on the same path.
I'll start from afar. Most a good option Windows installations are initially divided into several logical drives (most often there are 2). In one of which the system is installed, and in the others everything you need (movies, music, images, etc.). And the correct thing to do would be to “give” a maximum of 100 GB to the system, and divide the rest or leave it on another disk. The wrong ways would be: leave about 30 GB for the system and not share HDD, and “shove” everything into one. After this, the system will need to be constantly cleaned and it will be difficult to determine what is where.
For example, on my 500 GB laptop the hard drive is divided into 100 and 400 GB, respectively, for the OS and my needs. This is approximately of course, because structure hard drives won't let you divide it evenly. And even if you buy an 8 GB flash drive, you will get something like 7.5 GB. But that's another story. You get the point.
But even if your hard drive is divided correctly (at least 70GB is allocated for Windows), then sooner or later the time will come when there is not enough space and Windows will “ask” you to delete the excess. When this happens to me with a local disk where I have my data, the toad strangles me in order to delete something from films or installer programs. You have to contrive and either delete it, or transfer it to disks, or to a portable hard drive in order to at least somehow preserve what was there (you know the habit). I don't think I'm the only one who has this problem.
But if this happens to the disk where the system is installed, then it’s even worse (at least for me). Here you feel sorry for the installed programs and you need to decide which ones to “sacrifice” in order to save space.
You can, of course, clean what you have using utilities. Clear all garbage in the form of temporary files and folders, the recycle bin, the registry and everything else you can. But sometimes this is not enough and not much space is freed up, but it is enough for the first time.
Now closer to the essence of the article.
For those who don't know, I'll explain. If you think that what you are “throwing” on the desktop, delete files and folders in the trash, save files in My Documents, Music, Downloads, etc. then nothing happens to the space on your system disk - you are deeply mistaken. The desktop is not a separate disk. This is just a “shortcut” indicating a location on your system disk. Therefore, when you load all these places, you load your disk on which operating system.
In this article, I will look at a couple of ways to ensure that such inconspicuous folders as Programs and Profiles are on another drive. Why is this method good? Yes, you can independently choose a folder to save your installed programs and games (moreover, 90% of them ask you to indicate the folder where they will be installed, and the remaining 10% are installed without asking), for downloading music, pictures and other things. But very often it happens that when installing, users simply click on the button Further without even thinking about what is written there (well, and along the way they install other programs from the developer or toolbars in the browser or something else) and in the end everything is installed on the system drive. If someone thinks that this is what is needed - that games and programs should be installed in the Program Files folder, otherwise the computer will die and the program will not work, then I will refute these thoughts. It is no coincidence that programs ask where to install them. To put it simply, they don’t care where the files are located, the main thing is that the path to them is indicated in the system files and registry.
It’s the same with profiles - often you simply don’t think about the fact that there is a folder with movies on your desktop or download files from the Internet to the Downloads folder. Meanwhile, this loads the disk.
And after the OS writes to you that there is not enough space, you begin to delete programs and games (sometimes necessary), sacrificing them for the sake of space. Or you could just look at the desktop or folders with music, pictures, downloads and other things.
That’s why I’ll show you how to make the default installation of programs and games on another drive, as well as profiles (which, by the way, sometimes also accumulate a lot of garbage in the form of temporary files of various utilities). Having done this once, it will remain until the system is reinstalled.
How to change the default installation path for programs and games to another drive?
Then copy from C:\Users (C:\Users) Public folder in D:\Users.
Go to the Registry Editor (how to do this is described above) and go to the branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. In it you need to change the files Default, Profile Directory and Public
change the value of %SystemDrive% to D:. It should look like this:
Reboot and see if it worked.
How to install a second Windows on another disk partition from a running first Windows? So as not to languish while waiting for the installation media to load while they are copied from it to the hard drive system files, installing a second Windows can be simplified using free program WinNTSetup.
1. About WinNTSetup
WinNTSetup is a small program designed for a narrow range of tasks: it allows you to install Windows on other partitions in a simplified mode and hard disks computer, as well as virtual VHD disks. As additional features programs - a small selection of tweaks for the installed system and the ability to integrate your own drivers. If in the usual case WinNTSetup only saves time on installing a second operating system, then for cases where there is neither a DVD drive nor a flash drive, it also optimal solution Problems.
All that is required to install Windows on another disk partition from a working current system is the downloaded ISO image Windows distribution and, in fact, the WinNTSetup program itself. WinNTSetup works on this principle: certain parameters are set in its window, after which the system installation process starts background. At the same time, you can continue to work with the computer as if background tasks were being performed by any other minimized program. Once the process of installing Windows on the second disk partition is complete, all that remains to be done is normal mode, having booted from a newly installed Windows - go through the final stages of the installation process: wait for the driver installation to complete, set the region, keyboard layout and other parameters, create a local profile or connect account Microsoft. Let's look at all this in more detail.
First of all, of course, you need to make a backup current Windows. Not so much for its own sake, but for the sake of the boot sector, where, naturally, during the installation of the second system, changes will be made to another partition of the disk. Availability of emergency bootable media A disk with a backup program is welcome.
2. Download WinNTSetup
You can download WinNTSetup from its official website. This portable program, which does not require installation into the system. After launch, you immediately need to agree to download some data.
3. Connecting an ISO image of a Windows distribution
WinNTSetup takes installation files for the second Windows either from the installation DVD in the drive or from an ISO image downloaded from the Internet. The downloaded ISO image must be mounted in virtual drive. In Windows 8.1 and 10 systems, this is done normally using the “Connect” option in the context menu on the ISO image.
In Windows 7, to mount ISO images you must use third party programs type Daemon Tools.
4. Installing Windows on another disk partition
WinNTSetup will launch with the installation tab active Windows versions, starting with Vista. In the first paragraph of the program window, you need to specify the path to either the instal.wim file or install.esd as part of the Windows distribution. Depending on the Windows builds its distribution will contain an “install” file with either one or another extension. Click the “Select” button.
And we indicate the path to the file, it is located on the installation disk in the “sources” folder.
The second item in the WinNTSetup window specifies the disk partition that will serve as the boot sector of the Windows installation. In Windows 8.1 and 10, a certain partition Z is specified by default. As partition Z, WinNTSetup defines a small technical partition (350-500 MB) of these versions of Windows called “System Reserved”.
There is no need to change anything here.
In Windows 7, this item will default to drive C, since in this version the boot sector is placed on the same partition along with the operating system itself. And in this case, too, we do not change the presets, we leave drive C.
We go down to the next item and use the “Select” button to indicate the very second section hard drive, where we are going to install the second Windows.
If selected for the second Windows partition the disk has not been previously formatted, this can be done without leaving the WinNTSetup window. When you press the “F” button, the standard function of formatting disk partitions will start.
Basic information about the system being installed has been entered; now you can begin to start the installation process. But before you click the button at the bottom of the “Install” window, you can delve into the program settings. In the lower block of the window, the path to your drivers is indicated and tweaks are applied to the installed system.
After clicking the “Install” button, we additionally confirm the start of the Windows installation process on the second disk partition by clicking “Ok”.
After which you can minimize the program window and go about your business. WinNTSetup will notify you of the completion of the operation with the following notification.
This means that the launch of only installed Windows will begin during the preparation of the operating system for deployment. After the computer restarts, we will be greeted by a bootloader menu with a choice of operating systems to launch. We choose, accordingly, just installed Windows. And we go through the steps of Windows deployment - specifying regional data, keyboard layout, network settings, creating an account, etc.
5. Installing Windows on another hard drive
The process of installing a second Windows on another hard drive is a little more complicated, because for Windows systems 8.1 and 10 you will have to manually create a separate partition for the bootloader. For Windows 7, you just need to make active the partition of another disk on which you plan to install the system. Launch the standard disk management utility by pressing the +R keys and enter:
If the other hard drive is unpartitioned, we create partitions on it. On the first section, call up the context menu and click “Make section active”.
We make sure that the section is active, remember its letter.
In the WinNTSetup window, specify the path to installation file, as shown in the previous paragraph of the article. And we indicate the prepared active partition as the bootloader partition and the partition of Windows 7 itself. And we start the installation process.
For Windows 8.1 and 10, you need to prepare both the system partition and the bootloader partition - the same technical partition that is not displayed in the system explorer, but in disk space managers it is listed as a “System Reserved” partition. If the first partition of another hard drive has already been created, you need to delete it and create a new one in its place. In the context menu on the unallocated space of the remote partition, select “Create a simple volume”.
We go through the steps of the wizard, specifying at the stage of determining the partition size for the installed Windows 8.1 - 350 MB, and for Windows 10 - 500 MB.
From the remaining unallocated space we form a partition for the system.
We carefully check that the first small section is active, and remember the letters of both sections.
In the WinNTSetup window we indicate the newly prepared partitions: in the second paragraph - a small partition, in the third - a partition of the system itself. And we start the installation process.
After WinNTSetup completes its work, you need to restart your computer, enter the BIOS, set the boot priority, respectively, from another hard drive and go through the Windows deployment steps.
Have a great day!
This article applies to Windows 7 and later on partitioned drives MBR.
For discs with markings GPT see Creating or restoring a boot in GPT markup. On Windows 10, you can define the markup type in PowerShell: Get-Disk.
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Initial conditions: Your system has more than one hard drive. One of them already has an operating system installed, and on the second you installed Windows 7. There was a need to remove hard system a disk on which Windows 7 is not installed. But it turned out that without this disk your system does not want to boot.
This happened because one of the three conditions for a successful download was no longer met:
- the partition from which the boot is performed must be active;
- The partition's boot sector must be compatible with bootmgr;
- The active partition must contain operating system boot files. For Windows 7 this is the file bootmgr and boot configuration data store ( BCD), located in a hidden and system folder Boot.
Let's consider the solution to the problem using the example of the configuration shown in the figure.
The Disk Management screenshot shows that the C: drive on which Windows 7 is installed is not active. The active drive is D:. Files Windows boot 7 (they are hidden and system) on drive C: will also not be detected. Task: transfer the bootloader from drive D: to drive C:, that is, ensure compliance with the above conditions.
Using a Windows 7 installation or recovery disc
With these disks, transferring boot files is easy. Physically disconnect the "unnecessary" hard drive, boot from the disk, setting it in the BIOS CD-DVD drive first boot device, enter . After scanning and searching for installed operating systems is completed, perform Startup Repair. The recovery program will prepare the hard drive as needed and copy it to it. necessary files. After a reboot, downloading will be restored.
If you don't have any installation disk, or a recovery disk, you can use the method described below.
Transferring boot files using the bcdboot.exe utility
Conventionally, we can divide the upcoming operation into three stages, corresponding to the three necessary conditions for successful loading.
First: go to the "Disk Management" snap-in (Win + R, in the "Run" line type diskmgmt.msc and click OK) and see what letter is assigned to the first disk partition on the left that you plan to keep. It is this section that we will make bootable and active: click right click mouse over the selected section and select context menu"Make the section active." Please note that this section must have a "primary" attribute.
Second: run command line with administrator rights. All commands discussed below will be executed sequentially without exiting the command line.
DISKPART list disk sel disk X list partition sel part 1 active exit
where X is the number of the disk that is supposed to be left in the list of disks (command list disk).
To do this you will need a utility bootsect.exe, which, in the absence of an installation disk, can be taken. Download and unpack it in advance, for example, into the root directory of the C: partition.
C:\bootsect /nt60 All /force
note: experience shows that if there are 2 or more HDD keys in the configuration /force necessary.
Bcdboot %Windir% /l ru-Ru /s C:
Key /l- selecting language settings for the download manager. If your system is not Russian-language, use other values for this key, for example, for in English- en-Us, for German - de-DE, etc.
Key /s- specifies the volume letter assigned to the target system partition to which the boot environment files are copied. This is the section that we have made active. Since the command firmware defaults to the current system partition (before removing the hard drive, this is the D: partition), applying this key with the letter of the intended boot partition is Necessarily!
- Let's make the disk active. There are two ways to make the desired section active.
- We rewrite the boot sector (make it compatible with bootmgr):
- We transfer the BCD and the bootmgr file to the new active partition:
Checking and editing BCD
Run the command
Bcdedit /store C:\boot\bcd
Based on the results of the command, check the parameters (underlined in the screenshot):
- in the "Windows Boot Manager" section the option device must be equal to the letter of the new active partition, in our case - and osdevice must be equal to the letter of the partition on which the Windows directories are currently located. In our case, this is also C:.
- in case of discrepancy, make the necessary changes using the commands:
Usually there is no need to run commands, but it doesn't hurt to check. Instead of an identifier (current), it can be (default), or even alphanumeric. Then in commands you need to use the one that is used for loading.
So, moving download files to another drive is not such a difficult task.
Instead of a conclusion, or "Russian-language multiboot menu"
Due to the fact that the startup recovery program running from the recovery environment uses the default parameters, the boot manager language becomes English. If there is one bootable system, this is not noticeable, but if there is a multiboot menu, it is noticeable. If you are not satisfied with this, run on the command line:
Bcdboot %Windir% /l ru-Ru
You need to run it after transferring the download files to the new partition.
When partitioning a hard drive, those who carry out this software operation often forget that the days of low-demanding Windows XP, minimalistic programs and casual games are long gone. Windows 7, 8/8.1, professional software packages and resource-intensive large-scale games from famous developers require much more space on the system disk than some 3-5 GB, which a few years ago was quite enough for full-fledged work with a PC.
This problem can be thoroughly solved by re-partitioning the hard drive - you need to grab a certain amount of gigabytes from non-system disk partitions and transfer them to the system one. But this is a serious operation that requires certain skills, and it is unlikely that all users will be able to do it on their own. Moreover, if the disk is repartitioned inappropriately, the installed operating system may crash and you will need to install it again. So it is better to entrust this procedure to experienced users.
But if the computer’s system drive is already full, you can solve this problem yourself by simply installing games and programs on another drive - a non-system drive, where there is plenty of space. Since all programs and games are installed by default on drive C, usually in the “Program Files” folder, you can change it to a folder located on a non-system drive by selecting another appropriate path during the installation process - for example, “D:\Installed programs\Installation folder for a specific program." And so that every time you install next program or games, do not manually register your installation path; the automatic installation directory can be changed - for example, from drive C to drive D.
To change path automatic installation programs and games will need to make some changes to the Windows registry.
To get to the system editor Windows registry 7 needed in search bar enter “regedit” and go to the registry editor. In Windows XP, you need to select the “Run” command from the “Start” menu and enter “regedit” in its field.
Windows 8 users can use the search that appears when you hover the mouse over the corners right side screen, and enter “regedit” in the search form field.
A system editor window will open, and here, in the mass of directories, you need to find the one you need in order to make the planned settings. We go this way:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" - "SOFTWARE" - "Microsoft" - "Windows" - "CurrentVersion"
The desired directory has been found, then you need to double-click on the right side of the registry editor to open the “ProgramFilesDir” or “ProgramFilesDir (x86)” parameter - this is the entry for automatically installing programs and games on a particular computer drive. And in most cases, the default value here is the classic version of the value - “C:\Program Files”.
Before setting a new value for automatic installation of programs and games on a non-system drive, you need to create a separate folder on this drive, which will be a kind of analogue of “Program Files”. It doesn’t have to be called “Program Files 2”, it can be any name, as long as no stranger who has access to the computer thinks what is stored there unnecessary files and did not delete this folder.
So, if the folder for installing programs and games on a non-system drive has already been created, all that remains is to change the value of the “ProgramFilesDir” parameter. Needs to be removed existing option- “C:\Program Files” - and enter a new one, for example, “D:\Installed programs”. The changes made, of course, need to be saved - click “OK”.
That's it - editor system registry You can close and test the software installation. By default, programs and games will be written to the newly designated folder.
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