Is it possible to change the Program Files directory for NT4?

[diovanti]

Is it possible to change the Program Files directory for NT4 before the actual install? Utilities such a nLite let me change the Program Files directory name for Windows 2K/XP, but I can't find a utility that does that with NT4. Is there a way to do in manually, perhaps?

[jaclaz]

30 minutes ago, diovanti said:

Is it possible to change the Program Files directory for NT4 before the actual install? Utilities such a nLite let me change the Program Files directory name for Windows 2K/XP, but I can't find a utility that does that with NT4. Is there a way to do in manually, perhaps?

Sure, it is possible.

I actually once did it, in a particular double/triple boot system I made the whole NT4 (a secundary, "emergency" install) inside a folder under root called NT911.

AFAICT it wasn't that much of a problem, the trick was at the time (and if I recall correctly) to:

1) install "normally" /but in \NT911 as opposed to the default \WINNT
2) duplicate the "Programs" folder and its contents inside \NT911\ as \NT911\NTProgs
3) use (good ol') COA2 to change all references in the Registry
4) reboot and delete the "original" "Programs" folder

I did the same for "Documents", moving everything to \NT911\NTDocs, but most probably, cannot really remember, I did the duplication to another name inside \NT911 from another booted OS instance.

COA2 can still be found here:

http://digilander.libero.it/rareware/coa2.zip

I later did the same, greatly reducing the amount/number of files also with Windows 2000, so I may be confusing the two OS's, it's a lot of years since I made those.

A couple references (for Windows 2000):

http://reboot.pro/topic/5679-a-mini-build-of-win2k/

jaclaz