How to change location where new apps will install and save to in Windows 10

[JamieKavanagh]

The ability to change the default install location for apps within Windows 10 is very useful indeed. If, like me, you use an SSD as your boot drive, you don’t want the constant reading and writing of apps exhausting the drive or using up valuable space on that solid state disk. So here’s how to change location where new apps will install and save to in Windows 10.

Change the default install location for apps within Windows 10
It’s simple to change location where new apps will install and save to in Windows 10. Be aware though, this will only change where new apps will go, not existing ones or those built into Windows 10 itself.

1. Navigate to Settings, System and Storage.
2. Locate Save locations in the right pane.
3. Change ‘New apps will save to’ to modify the save location to the drive of your choice.

If the option is greyed out on your Windows 10 machine, make sure your version is up to date. The option to change install locations was delayed until a couple months after the release of Windows 10.

Change the install location of existing apps within Windows 10
There is to be the option to change the install location of existing apps within Windows 10 but for some reason it has been delayed. I don’t yet know when it will be available again.

To check:
1. Navigate to Settings, System, Apps & features.
2. Select an app and you should see a popup box which will have a Move option and an Uninstall option.

Not all apps have Move, some will have Modify. This can in theory change the default location but all it does is load the installer for the app and for you to re-install. For now, it’s easier to consider this feature not available.

More Windows 10 personalization tips can be found here:
How to Change your Screen Saver Settings in Windows 10
How to Restore and use Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10
How to change the system language in Windows 10

View all of our Windows 10 Tutorials