Changing Program Files default location in Windows 7

Question

Folks,

When I get a new PC, I always first partition my disk into C, D and E - then install Windows on C, other software on D, and use E for my own work. To make my installs easier, I first change the registry location of ProgramFilesDir (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir) to "D:\Program Files". Once I do this, all new installations go to D:\Program Files. Life was good.

Now I have Windows 7. I see that the Registry includes all these entries now...

CommonFilesDir
CommonFilesDir (x86)
CommonW6432Dir
ProgramFilesDir
ProgramFilesDir (x86)

By the time Windows 7 was installed, the two "CommonFiles" directories already had stuff installed. I decided to leave these untouched. The rest I changed to their D-drive equivalents.

So two issues...

First, new software installs STILL want to go to C:\Program Files. I always have to change the "C" to a "D" - which I've never had to do before. (Yes, I've rebooted plenty since making the registry change.)

Second, I'm finding that Visual Studio 2010 seems especially confused by this. I have installed .NET 4.0, and even tried repairing it, but VS 2010 insists I don't have 4.0 installed. (I've heard that others have this trouble, too, and VS 2010 seems to really want to be on the C-drive.)

Any help, dear friends, with either issue?

Answer 1

I suggest you do not change the reg to point to new drive for program files. Microsoft hard code many things to expect c:\program files and without this set=up all hell breaks loose. This especially true for updates etc.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933700

MS does not support changing location of program files!

The reality is we just have to expicitly set "d" every time we go to install something!