Changing the default "Program Files" when installing

[steev]

When I turn on the laptop it boots up and all the pre-loaded stuff goes into "program files" (things like movie maker, outlook express, messenger, online services folder, common files folder, etc etc etc etc).

When I load new software I like to put it in a new folder called c\software, but every time I boot up all these other things I mentioned get loaded into the new folder so I have the "program files" folder and the "software" folder each containing all the preloaded stuff.

Can I stop this? How can I have the preloaded stuff loading into program files only and my software into my new folder. I know about the registry edit to change the default location but it makes no difference to the preloaded stuff.

Any suggestions? Your help and advice is much appreciated.

Regards,

steve

[nitro322]

I'm not quite clear on what you're trying do here. It sounds like you want all applications installed into "C:\Software", and you don't want "C:\Program Files" to exist at all. Is that correct?

Another part of the confusion comes from the title of your post. I take that to mean "change the default location of %programfiles% during Windows installation." According to the body of your post, though, you seem to mean "change the default location of %programfiles% for newly installed applications". If you could provide some more details, it may help clear up the confusion.

[Takeshi]

You're seeing duplication of the "preloaded stuff" (they're really just some Windows components) after you change the reg for the default Prog Dir. I've seen this too. They're only remnents of the old folders left behind.

Surely it'd be simpler not to change the registry, but when you install new programs, manually point to the new folder.

The other side-effect is, after you've changed the default Prog Dir, IE updates refuse to install.

[steev]

Sorry for the confusion Nitro - yes, I mean change the default location of newly-installed programmes to my new location of C\Software but keep all those preloaded things (movie maker, etc etc etc) in the C\Program files folder. (I think I mean %programfiles% for the preloaded things and have my other software eg Nero, in %software%), so every time I turn on my laptop then all the original loaded things stay in the C\Program files and any software I load will go to C\software. Does that make it more clear?

Takeshi - That's an interesting point about the default Dir for Ie and updates not installing. I didn't know that'

I appreciate the advice you've given so far, thanks.

Steve

Edited September 2, 2006 by steev

[Kamus]

That's easy men, you only have to edit the WINNT.SIF in the I386 folder.

You only have to add in the [unattended] Section the line

ProgramFilesDir="\THE NAME OF THAT YOU WANT"

and that's all !!!

is something like this

[unattended]

FileSystem=*

UnattendMode=FullUnattended

OemSkipEula=Yes

OemPreinstall=Yes

TargetPath=\WINDOWS

UnattendSwitch="yes"

KeyboardLayout="United Kingdom"

ProgramFilesDir="\Software"

[Takeshi]

That's easy men, you only have to edit the WINNT.SIF in the I386 folder.

You only have to add in the [unattended] Section the line

ProgramFilesDir="\THE NAME OF THAT YOU WANT"

...

It's not what he wants.

Coming back to what I said earlier, IE updates refused to install when I changed the default prog dir to another partition. I don't know if it'll work keeping it in C. You have to try it out and see.

[Kamus]

Okay sorry, but are you changing the common files dir path?

I have c:\system %windir%

c:\settings %allusersprofile%

d:\software %programfiles% but I have inside the Common files folder and all the stuff but it works fine to me

Try using System Control of Tune Up Utilities 2006

Now I have this config since install but with that program is easy