Program Files folder

[AranMorietwa]

Hello,

I would like to re-install my system and to keep things a bit more defragmented and suited to my taste I was thinking of moving the Documents and Settings folder to another partition. The attended.txt has an entry for this ( ProfilesDir in Unattended, if my mind doesn't deceive me ). But I also want an alternative location for the Program Files folder. It is possible, I know for sure. I would like Windows Setup to do it by itself, so I don't have to scan the whole registry to replace it after the setup has put everything inside the folder.

Normally, I would be done by changing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir in the registry, but that would also require me to move everything inside to be moved.

Does anybody know of a switch or entry in any config file to make it clear to Windows Setup it shouldn't use C:\Program Files but the alternative ( D:\Progs, I would call it ).

If no one knows of such thing, I will use a batch file and scan the registry manually to prevent any corruption...

Thank you!

P.S. : this is what I tried already: I used Google, I ran a search on the deployment reference (ref.chm) etc. but I didn't get a single (correct) result.

[XtremeMaC]

its winnt.sif....

[unattended]

ProgramFilesDir="d:\Program Files\"

CommonProgramFilesDir="d:\Program Files\Common\"

[big_gie]

I would suggest you to move only the "My Documents" folder to another drive and not the whole Documents and Settings. In DocsNSettings, there is many program configuration files and if you want a clean install, you don't want all those config.

What I did was to modify

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\\Personal to point to D:\Data

Now if I double click My Documents, it gets me to D:\Data. But the Documents and Settings is still in C:\Documents and Settings where it belongs...

[DarkPhoenix]

I would suggest you to move only the "My Documents" folder to another drive and not the whole Documents and Settings. In DocsNSettings, there is many program configuration files and if you want a clean install, you don't want all those config.

Unless I am horribly mistaken, what he meant to do was to have the Documents and Settings folder on another location by default, (so when Windows installs, it will use that location) not to actually move an existing D'n'S folder.

[AranMorietwa]

Thank you guys!

And it was to get the folder from the beginning at the alternate location. I know it is nearly impossible to move the folder and I would need to scan the whole registry after moving such a folder, so I asked for the Windows Unattended option.

Thank you! (Did I read past that info in the ref.chm, I did a search for Program Files in the file, and I read most parts, but I don't remember anything about that )

[big_gie]

I would suggest you to move only the "My Documents" folder to another drive and not the whole Documents and Settings. In DocsNSettings, there is many program configuration files and if you want a clean install, you don't want all those config.

Unless I am horribly mistaken, what he meant to do was to have the Documents and Settings folder on another location by default, (so when Windows installs, it will use that location) not to actually move an existing D'n'S folder.

Of course.

And I actually recommend not doing so but only change the default "My Documents" folder to point to another location, and not all the "Documents and Settings". That way you can keep your files, but have a clean install since the configuration of programs will be deleted (I backup some of them, but not ALL... thats the whole point of a clean install)

[AranMorietwa]

I would like to keep those folders together, so I can size the Windows partition down and put all my data, programs etc. on another partition or hard disk. After eacht clean install, I've preformed in the past I just back-up the D&S-folder to be sure I have got all my e-mails, templates, etc. After I RAR'ed them, I just check all folder in Program Files for useful programs and for files I've created myself (because some programs only save it in the PF-folder). And when I do a clean install, I normally reorganize my documents (sometimes I sort them by subject, other times I sort them by file type into different directories). My last sorting went quite well: I just keep school work separate from other work, my home-made programs in a directory, all photos in a folder. That are my 'real' documents. Other files I didn't create but I always need are stored in a different folder named 'Resources' with XP themes, backgrounds, icon sets, libraries for Delphi, eBooks about computers etc. To ensure I can always access it where ever I am, I just share the folder. Then I have also a third directory which contains files other people would store in My Docs: it just sits on a external hard disk and contains my music collection, my video collection etc. I chose to do this because I often need the music elsewhere so I can just unplug the drive, take the cables and power cord and go. My collection is far too big to put it on dvd-r and it expands every day.

So I don't think about changing this method right now, but thanks for the help anyway!

[Arrakis]

@XtremeMaC:

I tried moving the program files folder to an alternate position using your entries in [uNATTENDED] section, but they simply don't work.

My intention isn't to move the folder to another partition but move the folder to a subdirectory. I'm trying to install my whole system in its own folder to be able to keep two (or more) independend installations on one partition in order to have a testing and a working system with different service packs or patch states without sharing them inside the program files folder.

I know, most people would install the second system inside a new partition.

But I don't want to get different drive letters for the two (or more) systems and I DO want to be able to access the inactive system via the active one.

The structure should be like this:

c:\

+--HAL9000

|    +--Profiles

|    +--Program Files

|    +--Windows

+--SAL9000

|    +--Profiles

|    +--Program Files

|    +--Windows

+--Temp

Imagine: System backup is just rebooting with the other system, making a ZIP file of the whole folder and write it to a CD (or DVD )... And many more possibilities!

The only question is: is it possible to move this [*censored*] folder?