Moving Applications/Programs

[Dr. Watson]

Hey Everyone,

Does anyone know of software that will move your installed programs around for you?

For example, lets say you are running with one internal hard drive, you've purchased a new hard drive and you want some of your programs to resided on the new drive instead.

Is the a program that will move your software, update registry entries, update shortcuts, etc., so everything works properly, to the new drive?

The idea is to NOT uninstall and reinstall.

Thanks,

Jim

[admin]

If both drives are still using the same operating system, then I've heard about people using SteamMover to do it. Originally designed to move Steam games from one drive to another, it can also sort of work for other programs. What it does is to move everything over to the new drive, and then create a shortcut to the new location - so technically, it's not changing the registry and anything like that, but simply redirecting all request for the software to the new location. Here's a short guide on how to use it:

Steam Mover Relocates Applications to Free Up Space on Your Primary Drive

Be warned that it's not guaranteed to work with all programs, so you still need to backup your important files.

[MilesAhead]

It's not likely to be smooth especially if apps are hooked into Explorer. Registry entries for shell folder, individual file types etc..

Much easier to move small utilities that store settings in an .ini file in the same folder as the exe. Then you just make new shortcuts. Although some of those can have context menu entries. The drive letter assignment is what makes the difficulty.