Changing default install directory breaks Windows Update

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D-File

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Jan 19, 2016
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I have a rather small SSD that I use as a boot drive, I think it's only like 128gb or something. I also have a 1TB mechanical drive that I use for storage. My SSD fills up fast and I don't want to install any programs to it. I get tired of having to remember to manually change the install location from C:\ to D:\ every time I install a program plus there are times when some programs, such as ninite, don't ask what directory to install things to and will default to the boot drive. So I went into the registry and changed the default install directory from C:\ to D:\ by going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and changing the values of ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir (x86) to D:\Program Files and D:\Program Files (x86)

This works great but the problem is that whenever Windows tries to automatically install updates they fail to install because it tries to install them to the wrong location since the default directory has been changed from C:\ to D:\ I can go in and manually change it back to C:\ every time I need to install an update but I'm wondering if there is any better way to go about this?
 
Solution
The better way is to suck it up and just manually change the install directory. If you're installing more than 1 piece of software a month you're doing something very wrong (note that steam and origin have their own defaults and don't count)
The better way is to suck it up and just manually change the install directory. If you're installing more than 1 piece of software a month you're doing something very wrong (note that steam and origin have their own defaults and don't count)
 
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