A – Z Guide to Move Program Files To Another Drive Windows 10/8/7

Published By Ashwani Tiwari

Approved By Tej Pratap Shukla

Published On February 28th, 2022

Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

If you are looking for solutions on how to move program files to another drive on Windows 10/8/7, you have come to the right place.

You may find cases where you need an alternative to transfer your program files in order to retain some space.

There are also situations that need you to move the program files to another drive in case there are a lot of apps and programs installed on your Windows OS.

In this article, we will be explaining the best approaches to move program files to another drive Windows 10.

But before that, let’s understand the two case scenarios that are responsible for relocating program files to another drive.

Also, you will be given an instant solution to do the same but with better speed, and fewer efforts. Keep reading to get to this amazing approach.

Cases Leading to Asking How to Move Program Files To Another Drive Windows 10/8/7

There are two cases where you may need to transfer program files to another drive:

Situation 1 – Move Program Files to Different Physical Disk

Some of the users may have one or more physical Hard Drive as a spare in case they need to use it. Windows are installed on smaller SSD by the users.

Users may need to retain enough space on SSD to move program files to another physical disk for a better experience.

This is one situation causing users to move program files to another drive Windows 10.

Situation 2 – Transfer Files to Drive on the Same Disk

Users may also want to relocate program files to another driveas there could be a large number of apps, software, and games installed on their computer.

Since these are installed in the program files by default, you can prevent low disk space warning by shifting program files to another drive.

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Let’s jump to the manual solutions now.

Manually Move Program Files To Another Drive Windows 10

We have here two workarounds for moving program files to another drive. These are:

Method 1 – Generating Directory to Transfer Program Files to Different Drive

Follow the steps are mentioned below to relocate program files to another drive:

First of all, you have to launch the “File Explorer” and navigate to the root on the drive that is the destination.
Now, “Right-click” there and choose “New”. Click on the “Folder” option and enter a name for the folder where you will be saving the program files.
Here, launch the new “File Explorer” and navigate to the drive from which you are moving the program files.
After that, choose the folder that has the program files and hit “Ctrl+C” and copy the folder.
Paste that folder in the other “File Explorer” in the destination drive by pressing “Ctrl+V” and resolve how to move program files to another drive in Windows 10/8/7.
Now, go to the “File Explorer” in the source drive that has the program files that you just moved, hit “Delete” and click “Yes” to move forward.
Choose the “File” option and click on the “Open Command Prompt as Admin”. Confirm the user access control prompt.
In here, you have to input the “mklink/j. This is to be entered in the full drive letter and path of old and new locations of the program files. Click “Enter” once done.
At last, make sure the program is executing properly by running it.

Now, check out the second solution.

Method 2 – Using Move to Transfer Program Files

Follow the steps as discussed below to move program files to another drive Windows 10:

To start the process, first click on “Windows” icon on the bottom-left corner of the screen.

From there, you have to find and click the “Settings” option and hit “Apps & Feature” button.

Here, you will see a list of all the installed apps.
Now, select the app that you want to move.
Here, you will find various buttons that will appear under the name.
After that, hit “Move”. If the button is not visible, this method cannot be used for the specified program.

Warning: The “Move” option will not be available on all the apps.

Now, choose a location to save the new drive and open it.
Choose a folder and then hit “Move”.

This is how you can resolve how to move program files to another drive Windows 10/8/7.

In a Nutshell

Here, the scenarios leading to move program files to another drive are discussed to give users a clear picture for the transfer.

Understand the manual methods well and apply them carefully. In case, there are any errors while using these solutions, you can always opt for the instant solution.