- Jun 24, 2019 How to Change the Default Installation Location on Windows 10. The 'C' drive is the default installation location destination in Windows. Anything you install there will use up your computer's storage. Windows 10 allows you to install.
- How to change the default location to install new apps Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app. Click System. Click Storage. Under Save locations, you’ll notice that the first option reads 'New apps will save to', from the drop-down menu select drive you want to use to.
- Reboot into Windows and allow ChkDsk to run. Reboot into Clonezilla, select expert mode, and select icds (skip disk size check). Use partition table from image. Reboot to Windows and allow ChkDsk to run again and log in to Windows. Restart when prompt pops up. Log in and run fsutil behaviour query disabledeletenotify. This should return 0.
- In Windows OS, by default, software get installed on your System Drive, usually C drive, in the Program Files folder. The typical path is normally in Windows 32-bit is C: Program Files and in Windows 64-bit is C: Program Files and C: Program Files(x86). Microsoft recommends the C: Program Files folder for default installation destination.
Active3 years, 5 months ago
How to Change the Default Installation Location on Windows 10. The 'C' drive is the default installation location destination in Windows. Anything you install there will use up your computer's storage.
I have an old PC with a HDD of 500GB with Windows 10 installation and is almost 90% filled with. The HDD is now fairly old and response time of Windows has become too slow.I am planning to upgrade PC with with new faster but small capacity SSD along with the existing HDD that can hold Windows 10 installation and will provide much improved response time.
What I want to know is, if I install the SSD is it possible to move Windows 10 installation from HDD to SSD, if possible how?I do not have the DVD or any recovery disc for the current installation.
Thanks in advance.
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Akshay KulkarniAkshay Kulkarni
1 Answer
Things you will need:-
- 1 USB drive with GPartED (Gnome partition editor),
- 1 USB drive with Clonezilla,
- A disk to backup to in case of a mistake,
- Administrator privileges on the PC,
- Some knowledge of finding Windows settings,
- Some knowledge of your motherboard BIOS.
Now the method I use:-
- Run Defraggler and Ccleaner, delete large unneeded files and run disk clean-up (clean up system files too).
- Run
powercfg –h off
in elevated CMD. - Turn off file indexing.
- Check pagefile and adjust to 200 – 5000Mb.
- Backup if necessary.
- Reboot into GPartEd and reduce disk size to 20Gb below SSD size, making sure Windows partition is the last partition on the disk.
- Reboot into Windows and allow ChkDsk to run.
- Reboot into Clonezilla, select expert mode, and select icds (skip disk size check).
- Use partition table from image.
- Reboot to Windows and allow ChkDsk to run again and log in to Windows.
- Restart when prompt pops up.
- Log in and run
fsutil behaviour query disabledeletenotify
. This should return 0. If not rerun Windows Experience Index which should detect SSD. - Change BIOS mode to AHCI. In elevated CMD, run
bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
- Restart the PC and change to AHCI in BIOS (somewhere in storage settings)
- Boot into Windows safe mode and run
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
Enjoy your new, much faster PC.
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These days, more and more devices are shipping with little or limited storage space. Most of the smartphones and tablets out there offer limited storage space, and a significant percentage of in-built storage is mostly occupied by the operating system only.
Those of you who own devices with limited storage might want to change the default install location of Windows apps downloaded from Windows Store in Windows 10 to avoid running out of free space on the system drive. As you likely know, with default settings, Windows 10 installs all Windows apps as well as desktop apps (traditional programs) in the system drive, which is usually C drive.
Default installation location of apps in Windows 10
If the drive where Windows 10 operating system is installed is running out of disk space, you can configure Windows 10 to use a different drive to install apps. The good thing is that you can make it happen without downloading or installing any third-party software. There is a built-in provision to change default install location of apps in Windows 10. And yes, this method can also be used to configure Windows 10 to install apps on external storage.
Note that when you change the default install location of apps, Windows 10 will not move existing Windows apps to the new drive. Only apps that you install in the future will be installed in the new drive.
If you have already installed hundreds of apps from the Store and would love to free up some disk space by moving already installed apps to a different drive, there is a nifty feature available to move installed apps to a different drive without having to re-install them. Go through our how to move installed apps to a new drive guide for detailed instructions.
In our opinion, if you have limited storage on your device or default drive, it’s a good idea to change the default install location as soon as you install Windows or start using your device rather than moving them at a later stage. While moving apps is relatively easy, you need can’t move multiple apps at once.
Change the default install drive of apps in Windows 10
Complete the given below directions to change the default install location of apps in Windows 10.
Windows App Location
Important: Please note this method is applicable only to Windows apps or modern apps. Traditional desktop programs will continue to use the Windows installed drive.
Step 1: Open Settings app. There are a couple of ways to open Settings in Windows 10. One of them is to navigate to Start menu and then click Settings icon. Settings app can also be launched using Windows + I keyboard shortcut.
Step 2: In the Settings app, click the first option labelled System (Display, notifications, apps, power).
Step 3: On the left-side, click or tap Storage.
Step 4: Scroll down to see Save locations section. Here, you can view the default locations for new apps, documents, pictures, and music.
Step 5: To change the default install drive of apps, under New apps will save to, click the drop-down and then select a drive.
That’s it!