If after installing tens computer programs on system disk He jammed to the brim and began to slow down and glitch, then it’s not at all necessary remove some of them— in this article I’ll tell you how to do it correctly, quickly and easily move program, game or browser profile to another drive without reinstallation.

How to move a program or game to another drive

Most inexperienced users mistakenly believe that they can simply cut out a folder with an already installed program or game from the system disk, and then paste it onto another disk.

No, friends, using primitive copy-paste (copy-paste) in this case will not work - when installing a program or game on the Windows operating system, the latter clearly writes and remembers the path to its folder.

But don’t be sad, there is a way out - you just need to mislead the system and slightly confuse it (exclusively from good intentions), slip a tiny file instead of the folder with the program or game being moved, which will “move the arrows” to their new location.

Windows will honestly think that the folder with the program or game is in its original rightful place.

We will be helped by a free and simple, as three kopecks, program for creating symbolic (symbolic) links called FreeMove.

FreeMove - symbolic link creator

By the way, using the method described below, you can move the “My Documents”, “Downloads” and “Desktop” folders to a non-system drive or any browser profile to a fast RAM disk V random access memory computer.

So, let's finally get to the point - how to move a program, game or browser profile to another drive without reinstallation using FreeMove.

Run as administrator (via context menu) our tiny portable utility, downloaded from the link at the end of the article...

...and in the first line we indicate the location of the folder that we want to transfer to another disk, and in the second - new address place of residence (I specially created the “Test” folder...

We press the “Move” button and watch for some time as the folder with the heavy program moves (I’ve already tortured my Photoshop with experiments 🙂)…

…ready…

Let's check...

Everything worked out - the folder is on another drive, and there is a significant increase in free space on the system drive. I launch the long-suffering (compressed) graphic editor... and it works wonderfully (I processed the screenshots for the article in it).

How to return moved program folders

A logical question is how to return everything back, if anything, or how to cancel a symbolic link? I couldn’t find a sane answer on the Internet (or maybe I just didn’t search well)—I had to experiment on my own.

I did this - on the system drive I simply deleted the “Adobe” folder (symbolic link file), and from the “E” drive (where the editor was transferred) I cut out a folder with the same name (from “Test”) and pasted it into “Program Files” (to its rightful place).

It may be a “collective farm” method of returning a folder with a program or game, but it works. You can describe another working algorithm in the comments to the article.

Let me summarize - with the help of a simple, free and portable program FreeMove can quickly move a program, game or browser profile to another drive without reinstallation and thereby free up a lot of free space on the system drive.

Nuances when using the program

First, you need to understand what you will get after transferring the folder with a program or game to another drive. For example, I showed this operation above with an example graphic editor, but I returned everything back because my system drive is a very fast SSD drive (of sufficient capacity), and I transferred the program to a regular hard drive.

I increased the free space on the main drive, but experienced severe “brakes” in the editor’s work (I even forgot that it works this way on obsolete disks). Before transferring, do not forget to think about what, where and why you are transferring.

Secondly, in order for the FreeMove program to work, it needs to be installed on the system. Microsoft package.NET Framework 4 .

Thirdly, attention and attention again - do not rush and remember what you are transferring and where. The slightest “blunt” and no one will help you revive the program or game, they simply won’t be able to.

Download FreeMove

Despite the fact that in modern computers install disks of at least 512 gigabytes; in practice, this vast space is not used. Laptop manufacturers like to divide the hard drive into several logical ones, allocating very little space to the C: drive, and the non-system D: to everything else. And this creates a problem: the disk is large, but there is no space to install programs!

Also, laptops in the price category of 35-50 thousand rubles, which have two physical disks installed: a capacious HDD (512 - 1024 GB) and a small SSD (64 - 128 GB), have gained great popularity. The first is a classic hard drive, slow and noisy. Second - solid state drive, which is essentially a very, very fast flash drive. The system installed on the SSD actually starts Very quickly, literally in a few seconds. But due to this organization of files, the C: drive turns out to be small and you need to transfer something to the slow HDD - documents, rarely used programs.

The simplest and safe option, when the programs are already installed and you don’t want to tinker with the computer, transfer some of the data to another, freer drive so that nothing breaks.

What takes up the most space

The heaviest folders on the C: drive are usually:

1. C:\Windows- installed directory operating system. There is nothing to delete there, although you can reduce the size with the command “compact /compactos:always” in the command line running as administrator. This can reduce the amount of work Windows place twice, I would not recommend getting carried away so much - responsiveness may decrease, especially on a PC with a slow processor, any extra compression/decompression operation will take up too many resources. It cannot be transferred.
2. C:\Program files And C:\Program files (x86)- Most application programs are installed there. Their transfer will be discussed in the next chapter.
3. C:\Users(folder “Users”) - this is where computer user files are stored: documents, images and Desktop contents. Such directories can be transferred using Windows by opening the properties of such directories and using the “Location” tab. In Windows 10, you don’t have to tinker with folder properties, but go to Start - Settings - System - Device storage - Change storage location for new content and select another drive, the system will transfer the data itself, but not all.
4. C:\Users\Username\AppData- this folder, hidden by default, can take up a lot of space, because browser caches, game saves and service files are stored in its wilds different programs. It is not advisable to transfer it all, although folders with caches can be transferred. However, you don’t have to bother with the transfer, but periodically delete it with the help of others unnecessary files. Especially those stored in the folder c:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp- A lot of garbage accumulates there.
5. c:\ProgramData- a hidden directory in which program settings that are common to all are stored Windows users. Should not be touched.

So, we don’t touch the Windows folder, we need to deal with C:\Users depending on the circumstances, but installed programs from C:\Program files and C:\Program files (x86) can be transferred. The software will help with this, the instructions for which are below.

FreeMove program - instructions

There is a simple and safe way move folders with installed software to another drive so that you don’t even have to change the shortcuts - free utility FreeMove, which creates symbolic links to folders.

1. Download FreeMove.exe from official page: github.com/imDema/FreeMove/releases/ .

2. Do it on drive D: (or another, depending on where it is) free place) folders “Program files” and “Program files (x86)”. There is no need to create anything inside.

3. Run the downloaded FreeMove utility as an administrator.

Run as administrator

4. In the program that opens, use the Browse buttons to select what you want to transfer and where. For example, in the screenshot below I am migrating Microsoft Office:

5. Click the button Move to start the transfer. After successful transfer you will receive a message "Done"

• If the error “destination folder doesn’t exists” appears, it means that a non-existent folder was specified in the “To:” field.
• Error “You do not have the required privileges to move the directory. ..." means that the program was not launched as an administrator.

6. Repeating steps 4-5, transfer the remaining folders with programs one by one. By the way, the “Program files” folder itself cannot be transferred due to possible problems, only the directories of individual programs inside. The author has built in “fool protection”, so it cannot transfer system directories.

What does FreeMove do?

This software creates symbolic links (“symbolic link”) - special file system objects that work as pointers to a directory or file. Unlike an ordinary shortcut, which massively clutter up desktops, symlinks from the point of view of programs are no different from ordinary folders and files. Therefore, they are best suited for hassle-free transfer of directories from SSD to HDD.

A symbolic link can also point to a non-existent object, nothing bad will happen - when you try to open it, an error will appear because the file is missing. And if you delete a link, the folder or file it points to will not be deleted.

FreeMove essentially does the same thing as the mklink system program, but provides users with a convenient interface.

How to return it back

Since shortcuts are essentially created in the source directories, which the system will follow to another drive to launch programs, you can delete these shortcuts and manually transfer the originals back.

Alternative methods

1. In order not to clutter up the C: drive, when installing the software, you can specify which folder on which drive to put it in. Alas, there are programs that work normally only when installed on the C: drive in a strictly predefined directory. For example, programs from Adobe like Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Premiere begin to fail when they try to install on another drive. Therefore, a regular installation on another disk partition does not always help.

2. Can resize logical drives, “biting off” a piece from the larger one and passing it on to the smaller one. There are many ways to work with disk partitions. The problem of good The point is that there is still a possibility that during the expansion of drive C: the lights will turn off, something will freeze, and then all data will be lost. Is it worth the risk of the C: drive getting bigger? I think no.

3. Buying a new hard drive with a larger capacity is the ultimate option. And if it’s an SSD, then everything will be great. Alas, this costs money and you will have to resolve the issue with

Conclusion: creating symbolic (“soft”) links using the FreeMove utility or the mklink command is the most easily implemented way to free up space on the system disk. Of course, provided that there is somewhere to transfer it.

I'll start from afar. The best option Windows installations- this is the initial division into several logical drives (most often there are 2). In one of which the system is installed, and in the others everything you need (movies, music, images, etc.). And the correct thing to do would be to “give” a maximum of 100 GB to the system, and divide the rest or leave it on another disk. The wrong ways would be: leave about 30 GB for the system and not share HDD, and “shove” everything into one. After this, the system will need to be constantly cleaned and it will be difficult to determine what is where.

For example, on my 500 GB laptop the hard drive is divided into 100 and 400 GB, respectively, for the OS and my needs. This is approximately of course, because structure hard drives won't let you divide it evenly. And even if you buy an 8 GB flash drive, you will get something like 7.5 GB. But that's another story. You get the point.

But even if your hard drive is divided correctly (at least 70GB is allocated for Windows), then sooner or later the time will come when there is not enough space and Windows will “ask” you to delete the excess. When does this happen to me? local disk where is my data - I myself am being strangled by a toad in order to delete something from films or installer programs. You have to contrive and either delete it, or transfer it to disks, or to a portable hard drive in order to at least somehow preserve what was there (you know the habit). I don't think I'm the only one who has this problem.
But if this happens to the disk where the system is installed, then it’s even worse (according to at least for me). Here you feel sorry for the installed programs and you need to decide which ones to “sacrifice” in order to save space.
You can, of course, clean what you have using utilities. Clear all garbage in the form of temporary files and folders, the recycle bin, the registry and everything else you can. But sometimes this is not enough and not much space is freed up, but it is enough for the first time.

Now closer to the essence of the article.
For those who don't know, I'll explain. If you think that what you are “throwing” on the desktop, delete files and folders in the trash, save files in My Documents, Music, Downloads, etc. then nothing happens to the space on your system disk - you are deeply mistaken. The desktop is not a separate disk. This is just a “shortcut” indicating a location on your system disk. Therefore, when you load all these places, you are loading your disk on which the operating system is installed.

In this article, I will look at a couple of ways to ensure that such inconspicuous folders as Programs and Profiles are on another drive. Why is this method good? Yes, you can independently choose a folder to save your installed programs and games (moreover, 90% of them ask you to indicate the folder where they will be installed, and the remaining 10% are installed without asking), for downloading music, pictures and other things. But very often it happens that when installing, users simply click on the button Further without even thinking about what is written there (well, and along the way they install other programs from the developer or toolbars in the browser or something else) and in the end everything is installed on the system drive. If someone thinks that this is what is needed - that games and programs should be installed in the Program Files folder, otherwise the computer will die and the program will not work, then I will refute these thoughts. It is no coincidence that programs ask where to install them. To put it simply, it doesn’t matter to them where the files will be located, the main thing is that in system files and the registry indicated the path to them.
It’s the same with profiles - often you simply don’t think about the fact that there is a folder with movies on your desktop or download files from the Internet to the Downloads folder. Meanwhile, this loads the disk.
And after the OS writes to you that there is not enough space, you begin to delete programs and games (sometimes necessary), sacrificing them for the sake of space. Or you could just look at the desktop or folders with music, pictures, downloads and other things.

That’s why I’ll show you how to make the default installation of programs and games on another drive, as well as profiles (which, by the way, sometimes also accumulate a lot of garbage in the form of temporary files of various utilities). Having done this once, it will remain until the system is reinstalled.

How to change the default installation path for programs and games to another drive?

Then copy from C:\Users (C:\Users) Public folder in D:\Users.

Go to the Registry Editor (how to do this is described above) and go to the branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. In it you need to change the files Default, Profile Directory and Public

change the value of %SystemDrive% to D:. It should look like this:

Reboot and see if it worked.

If in your Windows system 10 has many apps and programs installed, you can move them to another drive to free up space. You may also need to change the default installation location. Fortunately, all this is possible.

Windows has a built-in utility that allows you to move modern applications to any location of your choice. Although this method does not work for traditional desktop programs, it is still possible to move these programs to another drive.

Let us show you how to move an application or program to another drive.

Most relatives Windows applications can be moved quickly, but the process of moving anything else will require extra work. We first describe the process for Microsoft applications Store, then we'll look at traditional desktop programs.

Modern Applications

Click Windows key+ I to open the Settings menu and tap Apps. You should be on the Applications and Features page on the left navigation.

Here you will find a list of all applications and programs installed on your system. Some of these applications may have come with your system, while others you may have installed yourself. This method will only work with the last group.

Highlight the app you want to move and select it from the list. Now click Move. Select the new drive location from the drop-down list, then click the Move button again.

You can repeat the process if you want to move the application back or to another drive.

If the Move button is grayed out, it means it's a Windows 10 app that can't be moved. If you see an "Edit" button instead, it is a traditional desktop program and you will need to follow the method described below.

Desktop programs

Microsoft does not recommend moving the file locations of installed programs because it may cause problems such as the program stopping working. A safer (though less effective) method is to uninstall the program and then simply reinstall it on required disk.

If you want to continue, create a restore point so you can undo the changes if something goes wrong.

We recommend using a program called Steam Mover. It was originally designed to move Steam games between drives, but will actually work with any program. You can use it to transfer programs from hard drive to solid-state ones, for example.

Please note that any drive you want to use with this program, regardless of where the program is installed or where you want to move it, must be in NTFS format. You can check this by downloading File Explorer and then clicking This PC on the left navigation bar. Now right-click on the drive and select Properties. Talk to File system to see if it is using NTFS.

Open Steam Mover. First click the... button next to Shared folder Steam Apps to select the path to the folder that contains the program you want to move (for example, your program files). Now click the... button next to Alternate Folder and select the path to the folder where you want to move the program.

Next, select the program from the list that you want to move. You can select multiple programs by holding down CTRL key. When you're ready to move, press blue arrow bottom right to get started. Command line will open and process the movement. When finished, you will see the path to the new folder next to the program in the Junction Point column.

How to change the default installation location

If you just want to change the default installation location for apps, it's easy. Changing it to standard programs is a little more difficult.

Modern Applications

Press Windows key + I to open the settings menu. From here, click "System" and then select "Storage" from the menu on the left.

Under the Advanced storage options heading, click Change where new content is saved. To change the default drive for new applications, use the New Applications drop-down list.

You'll notice that this page also allows you to change the default location of things like documents, music, and pictures.

Desktop programs

Microsoft does not recommend changing the default installation path for programs. This may cause problems with existing programs and some Windows features. It is best to perform this operation on a clean system. If this doesn't work, create a restore point so you can rollback if necessary.

Most programs will allow you to change the installation path when installing them, which may be the best solution than messing with the system.

Once the program has opened, click "Enable Editing" and then click "Yes" when the User Account Control window appears. You will now be able to select the default installation path using the... button to navigate to the folder path if necessary.

Program Files installs 64-bit applications, and Program Files (x86) installs 32-bit applications. If you're not sure what this means, read our guide on the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions. In bit versions But you'll still probably want them both on the same drive.

Once you have selected the new path, click Apply Changes. Now any new programs you install will use these folder paths by default.

Clean up your drive

Now that you know how to move your apps and programs and how to change their default installation location, you can free up space on your drives. But be sure to take all precautions when using third-party programs.

To save disk space, you can transfer installed programs to another disk or flash card. Moreover, you can transfer not only applications, but also games. But before you start transferring, it’s worth making a small note. This instruction will only apply to applications (including games) that are installed from the Windows Store.

So, to transfer the application you will need:

1. Open panel " Options", Further " System" And " Applications and features". Here you should select a program and press the button " Move".

2. In the proposed list, select the disk to which we will transfer the application and click again "Move". If applications from another device are found on the selected disk, you will be prompted to delete them. If you do not want to delete these programs, then you should select a new disk.

3. To avoid transferring programs manually, you can configure automatic installation to the desired disk. To do this, go to Settings-System-Storage-Storage Locations. Then select the desired drive from the list " New applications will be saved here:", now press " Apply".