How to transfer programs from disk to disk. How to transfer a program from disk to disk d. How to move folders "downloads", "desktop", "documents" from drive C to drive D. FreeMove - move software from the system drive

Sooner or later, a computer user has a question: how to transfer a program from a disk to another hDD without reinstalling it. Moreover, most often this question arises from game lovers, tk. the computer starts to slow down and even reboots at the most interesting place.

Even if you have a terabyte hard drive, this does not mean that you can hang everything on it indefinitely. Advanced users install operating system on a disk with a small volume, and all programs and games are uploaded to other disks so that they do not load the system.

Then, when you have mastered the computer well, you will immediately learn how to set the installation path not to the C: drive, but to another when installing a particular game. But for now we will try to solve the problem and transfer all our toys to another hard drive using a small program called “ Free Move". There are, of course, other methods, but they are still too complicated for beginners, so we will use the simplest option.

We transfer all our toys from the disk from: to another disk

Download and run the Free Move program

You can look for the program on the official website, but it is in English and the link to the program is not so easy to find. Therefore, I will make it easier for you and give a link to this program on my Yandex disk.

The program is checked by antivirus, so you don't have to worry about it. Click on the " Download».

The program is very small (764 KB), runs without installation, so it can be opened even from a USB flash drive.

Size - 760 kb.

OS - Windows 10/7 / 8.1.

How to work with Free Move

Run the program as administrator. To do this, click on its icon right click mouse and select " Run as administrator».

This is important, otherwise the program may refuse to transfer files to another drive.

A small window will open with two lines and four buttons.

Do not be alarmed that everything here is in English. The program is so simple that we don't need a translation.

We press the first button " Browse"Opposite the field" MoveFrom: ". Here we must indicate the path to the program folder or game that we want to transfer to another hard drive.

If you do not know where the folder with the game or program is located, then right-click on the shortcut of the game (program) and select the item “ Properties"(It is usually at the very end of the list).

The window “ Properties", In which on the tab" Label", in field " Work folder "The path to it is shown. You can copy and paste it into the “ MoveFrom: ", Only without quotes.

The next step is to specify the path to the hard drive to which we will transfer the game (program). To do this, press the button " Browse"Opposite the field" To»

And we indicate the disk (i.e. select it with the mouse). I will transfer the game " Aqua Quest"To hard disk" Programs (I)».

All my disks have been renamed. They will most likely be designated as a local drive with a Latin letter.

After selecting the disk, press the button " OK". After that, in the field “ To”The drive letter appears.

You can create a separate folder on this disk and specify it.

After these manipulations, press the button " Move».

A tick next to the entry “ Setoriginalfoldertohidden"It is better not to set, otherwise the original folder will be hidden, and if you want to return everything back, you will have to sweat a lot to find it.

At the end of the file transfer, a small window will appear with the words “ Done"And the button" OK". We press the button " OK».

And we close the program.

Now on the C: drive we have the game folder in the form of a shortcut (with a small blue arrow at the bottom),

and on disk I: a full-fledged folder with the game appeared.

The program has created symbolic links on the C: drive, which practically do not take up disk space, and most importantly do not load the system when they are launched.

The video below shows how to transfer a program or game from drive C to another hard drive:

How to transfer the folder with the game or program back to the C drive:

This can be done using the same program. Just do not forget to run the program as an administrator, otherwise it will write you an error. Or you can delete the folder on the C drive and drag (or cut) the folder from the drive where you dragged it and paste it where it was from the very beginning (i.e. in the place of the folder with the blue arrow in the lower left corner) ...

If after installing dozens computer programs to the system disk it huddled to capacity and began to slow down and glitch, it is not necessary at all remove some of them - in this article I will tell you how to correctly, quickly and easily move program, game or browser profile to another disk without reinstalling.

How to move a program or game to another drive

Most inexperienced users mistakenly believe that you can simply take and cut out system disk folder with an already installed program or game, and then insert it on another disk.

No, friends, you won't be able to use a primitive copy-paste in this case - when installing a program or game in the Windows operating system, the latter clearly prescribes and remembers the path to its folder.

But do not be sad, there is a way out - you just need to mislead the system and slightly confuse it (solely out of good intentions), slip a tiny file instead of a relocatable folder with a program or game that 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, like three kopecks, program for creating symbolic (symbolic) links called FreeMove.

FreeMove - symbolic link creator

By the way, in the way described below you can transfer folders "My Documents", "Downloads" and "Desktop" to a non-system drive or any browser profile to a fast RAM disk at random access memory computer.

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

Run as administrator (via context menu ) our tiny portable utility downloaded from the link that 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 (specially created the "Test" folder ...

We press the "Move" button and watch the folder with a heavy program move for a while (I've already tortured my Photoshop with experiments 🙂) ...

... done ...

Checking ...

Everything worked out - the folder is on another disk, and the free space on the system disk increased significantly. I launch the long-suffering (compressed) graphics editor ... and it works wonderfully (I processed screenshots for the article in it).

How to get moved program folders back

A logical question is how to get everything back, if something or how to cancel a symbolic link? I didn't find a sane answer on the Internet (or maybe I just looked badly) - I had to experiment on my own.

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

Maybe the "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.

To summarize - with the help of the simple, free and portable FreeMove program, you can quickly move a program, game or browser profile to another disk without reinstalling and thereby free up a lot of free space on the system disk.

Nuances when using the program

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

I increased the free space on the main drive, but got strong "brakes" in the work of the editor (I even forgot that it works this way on obsolete disks). Do not forget to think before transferring what, where and why you transfer.

Secondly, the FreeMove program needs the Microsoft package installed on the system to work. NET Framework 4 .

Thirdly, attention and again attention - do not rush and remember what you are carrying and where. The slightest "dullness" and no one will help you to revive the program or game, they simply cannot.

Download FreeMove

I'll start from afar. The best option windows installations - this is the initial division into several logical disks (most often there are 2). In one of which the system is installed, and in the others everything that is needed (movies, music, images, etc.). And it would be correct to "give" a maximum of 100 GB to the system, divide the rest or leave it on another disk. The wrong ways would be: leave about 30 GB for the system and not divide the hard drive, but "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 a laptop I have a 500 GB hard drive divided into 100 and 400 GB, respectively, for the OS and my needs. This is approximately of course, since structure hard drives will not allow to divide exactly. And even buying an 8 GB flash drive you will get something about 7.5 GB. But that's a different story. You got the essence.

But even if your hard drive is divided correctly (at least 70GB is allocated for Windows), sooner or later the time will come when there will be little space and Windows will "ask" to delete the excess. When this happens to me with local disk where my data - the toad strangles me myself to remove something from films or installer programs. You have to trick and either delete, or transfer to disks, or to a portable hard drive in order to at least somehow preserve what was (you know a habit). I think I'm not the only one familiar with this problem.
But if this happens to the disk where the system is installed, then it's even worse (at least for me). Here you feel sorry for the installed programs and you need to decide which ones to "sacrifice" for the sake of saving space.
You can, of course, clean up what you have with utilities. Clean up any garbage in the form of temporary files and folders, the trash can, the registry and everything else you can. But sometimes this is not enough and not much space is freed up, but for the first time there is enough.

Now closer to the essence of the article.
For those who do not know, I will explain. If you think that what you "throw" on the desktop, delete files and folders in the trash, save files to My Documents, Music, Downloads, etc. then nothing happens to the place in your system disk - you are deeply mistaken. The desktop is not a separate drive. This is just a "shortcut" indicating the space on your system drive. Therefore, when you load all these places - you load your disk on which the operating system is located.

In this article, I will consider a couple of ways how you can make such invisible folders as Programs and Profiles on a different 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 specify 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 users, when installing, simply click on the button Further without even thinking what is written there (well, along the way they put themselves other programs from the developer or toolbars in the browser or something else) and as a result everything is installed on the system disk. If someone thinks that this is what is needed - that games and programs are 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 not by chance that programs ask where to install them. To put it more simply, they do not care where the files are located, the main thing is that the path to them is specified in the system files and the registry.
The same is with profiles - often you simply do not think about the fact that there is a folder with movies on your desktop or downloading files from the Internet to the Downloads folder. In the meantime, it loads the disc.
And after the OS writes to you that there is not enough space, you start deleting programs and games (sometimes necessary ones), sacrificing them for the sake of space. And you could just look at the desktop or folders with music, pictures, downloads and more.

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

How can I change the default installation path for programs and games to a different drive?

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

We 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 applications 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 of this is possible.

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

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

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

Modern applications

Press Windows Key + I to open the Settings menu and click Applications. You should be on the left navigation apps and features page.

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, others you 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 disk location from the dropdown 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 that this is a Windows 10 app and cannot be moved. If you see the Change button instead, this is a traditional desktop program and you will need to follow the method described below.

Desktop programs

Microsoft does not recommend moving the location of the installed programs' files because doing so can cause problems such as the program to stop working. A safer (albeit less efficient) method is to uninstall the program and then simply reinstall it on the correct drive.

If you want to continue, create a restore point so you can undo your 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 port programs from hard disk on solid, for example.

Please note that any disk you wish to use with this program, no matter where it is located installed program 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 in the left navigation pane. Now right click on the drive and select Properties. Talk to File systemto see if she 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, hit the blue right arrow at the bottom 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 simple. Change it to standard programs a little more complicated.

Modern applications

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

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

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

Desktop programs

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

Most programs will allow you to change the installation path when they are installed, which might be a better solution than messing with the system.

After the program has opened, click on "Enable Editing" and then click "Yes" when the UAC window appears. You can now 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... AT bit versions But you still probably want both of them on the same disk.

After choosing a new path, click Apply Changes. Now all new programs that you install will use these folder paths by default.

Clean up your disk

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 remember to take all precautions when using third-party software.

When on system partition there is little space left, the user can take the following measures. Firstly, secondly, reluctantly remove some applications, and thirdly, compress the system disk with a built-in function. But there is also a fourth option. Installed Apps can be moved to another partition or disk, and moreover so that they will still work as if nothing had happened.

A small utility called FolderMove will help you with this task. This tool allows you to transfer directories with programs and games, leaving symbolic links in their place, so that the correct paths to executable files and their connection with entries in the system registry are preserved.

FolderMove is extremely easy to use. The utility window has two fields "Move From" and "Move To", the first specifies the source directory, the second - the location where it should be moved. The Move and set Symbolic Link button starts the move procedure. Additionally, you can set a checkbox in the "Set Symbolic Link to hidden" checkbox, in this case the "Hidden" attribute will be set for the directory with the symbolic link label.

Keep in mind the following when working with FolderMove. The utility cannot be used to transfer system applicationsas this may cause them to stop starting. It is also not recommended to transfer programs that are deeply integrated into the system; if the transfer fails, the program may also stop working. In general, use the tool at your own risk.

You can download the current version of FolderMove from the developer's website foldermove.com. The utility is distributed free of charge, does not require installation, the language of the simplest interface is English. You should run the utility as an administrator, if you suddenly need to return the moved directory to the Program Files folder, you will have to do this manually, after removing the symbolic link.