WHAT the ? Did 10 move my Program Files (x86)

[glennfhooper]

My C Drive is an ssd and much smaller than my D drive.

SInce day one I installed everything to my D drive. If I was prompted during install for C:\Program Files (x86), I changed it to D:\Program Files (x86).

Ran fine for months.

Today My pc was acting strange, I restarted it. Many of my desktop and taskbar shortcuts are missing icons and trying to start them I now get "D:\Program Files (x86)\ ...
The specified path does not exist.
Check the path, and then try again."

GULP... I purposely saved all the data to that drive as well...

Go into add-remove software, and sure enough programs installed to the D drive now have missing icons as well

Search for an exe I know I used last night, and it comes up in the C:\Program Files (x86) folder.

I edit the properties of the shortcut, and see the Target points to D, but the start in is now C ???

Whats messed up is changing the target to C, starts my program. WHATS messed up MORE is the DATA is now ALSO in the C drive ????????????????????????


What the heck happened ??????

Update, Not all of the data was moved to the C drive. Opening an app (now located in the C:\Program Files (x86) ) and going to its re-open or recent option shows work files created by that app that are still on the D drive...

Also, doing a windows+I, System, Storage now shows new apps pointing to the C drive. I know for a fact this was changed, as every other location is set to D, it was the very first thing I did when setting up this PC a few months ago...

VERY strange indeed... Was there an update done that I dont know about ? Update history shows an update on 10/27 but my PC was fine yesterday, 10/31..

Leaving more questions the more I look...

 

[Sedivy]

Yes there was a recent big fall update to windows:
https://www.howtogeek.com/306610/WHATS-NEW-IN-WINDOWS-10S-FALL-CREATORS-UPDATE/
As there have been many issues that are not surprising with a big new update like this, I'd assume your changing file path falls under one of these.
I wouldn't know how to untangle all the likely issues because of this. I'd likely just wipe and reinstall and this time during windows install, rename your drives so your current c becomes d and vice versa, to avoid issues in future updates.

 

[USAFRet]

For future reference, a folder on a secondary drive for application installs does NOT have to be named "Program Files (x86)"
It can be called whatever. MyApps for instance. or "OtherPrograms". Or "MyOtherJunk".

I have 5 drives. OS and most applications on one, pretty much all the working files across the other drives.
I'm not sure what happened with your system, but that did NOT happen with mine during this Fall update.

You didn't by any chance do any Registry editing to install applications on the second drive?

 

[glennfhooper]

USAFRet, Thank you, I did know I could name it anything, just thought keeping the entire filepath the same (Except for the drive) would be simpler in the future.

And yes, there was a little registry magic done... besides the changing the location to D in settings, some software on install installed to C:\program files (x86) without an option to change it.

The first time that happened I went to regedit and %systemroot%\syswow64\regedit and changed the Paths in ProgramFilesDir, ProgramFilesDir (x86) to the new path.
(As mentioned in https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/how-do-you-change-the-default-installation/73450b25-d794-4f18-9add-75253b893343?auth=1)
That solved the install issue and life was good for months.

Why Windows decided to move most if not all of the apps from the D to C is still bother some. Two calls to Microsoft support toady went as I figured. No real answers as to why and how to prevent from happening again...

Sedivy,
I did not install any major releases. The last update was "Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems (KB4023057)" and on 10/27.
My PC was fine untill this morning, so dont think that had anything to do with it, but cant say for sure...

 

[Sedivy]

Ah ok the new update brings you up to 1709 so that probably isn't it.

 

[USAFRet]

Changing it in the Registry is the absolute wrong way to install things to a different drive. And I suspect, the root cause of the issues here.

Everything defaults to the C drive, but most applications can be installed on any drive or folder you choose.
During the install, select Custom or Advanced, and tell it where to go.

Some other things default to the C and only the C. Drivers, for instance. A few other dumb applications.
Those really DO need to go on the C drive. Force them to be elsewhere, and tears result.

That Registry hack is strongly not recommended. This latest Windows Update is the semi-annual large thing, and is mostly a fresh install.
With your Reg hack, it got all confused.


Finally, for applications, you DO want them on the SSD. Having them on the HDD tosses out 1/2 the functionality of having the SSD in the first place.

Unless you're trying to manage a tiny 64GB drive, a LOT of applications will fit on a typical SSD.
And if you ARE trying to manage a 64GB drive, don't. Ditch it and get something larger.
250GB or above.