Here's our Windows NT Tip for.. August 22, 2000
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Installing Programs on a Second Drive
If you originally installed Windows NT 4.0 Workstation on you c:\ drive; but are now running out of space there, you know that installing more programs can be a pain. If you've installed a seconed hard drive; it makes life easier, but Windows always wants to automatically install things to drive c:\

While for some this isn't a problem, it can be a nuicance to constantly specify a new program location in installation dialogs. There's a way to have Windows automatically offer up a different installation default; but its going to require a registry hack to get it done.

As ever, if you edit your registry, you'll need to exercise caution. WUGNET isn't responsible for the state of your computer if things go south because you tried this out... You give it a go at your own risk.

To begin, click Start, Run, type

regedit

and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version.

In RegEdit's right pane, double-click ProgramFilesDir and change the path in the String Editor to D:\Program Files, or what ever default location you prefer. Click OK to continue. Now, double click ProgramFilesPath and change its value to D:\Program Files and click OK. Exit RegEdit and restart the computer.

Note: Most newer programs will follow the convention and get their path information from the operating system. However, some programs don't check and insist on installing in a predefined folder.