to be able to change windows 8.1 apps default drive to external sd card to save fixed drive space

Ganesh Achar B ,

This is a serious problem and limitation, that has rendered many 32 GIG devices useless.  I have a Windows phone HTC 8X with only 8 gigs of storage and no SD slot al la WIndows phone standard specs at the time of sale.  My phones battery is also not replaceable.  This has limited the APPs I buy on the phone.  Now after buying another MS supported device (they sold it themselves from their store) I am attacked again from a different vector affecting device usability (Not allowing SD cards to save certain data) with the same consequences as my phone.  MS has disabled even the registry hack proving the intentional nature of the downgrade.  That I do not have default ownership of "Appx" is glaring; why limit the user if you are allowing a full copy of 8.1 to run?  Why are the design differences in the tablet operating system not listed anywhere?  How does this conform to Satya Nadella's vision of a unified operating system; surely not one with arbitrary file save abilities on different devices?  

My question is, when will MS flip this obvious toggle switch and stop diminishing the life and value of the devices it has promoted itself in its store, without listing such glaring limitations.  IF MS has done this to force a purchaser to buy a device with more memory, then listing the SD card save limitation may have drove us to a different purchase, with more on board memory.  The expandable SD card was noted in sales literature, as an advantage for those who chose the 32 gig model win 8.1 tablet devices.  It is not.  We are many and our demand here needs addressing.  Where we install apps should be our business, the device is not 64 bit.   Why is the feature to save Windows apps and app data to a SD card not available on a "Full Version" of windows 8.1 for tablets?

The above registry hack doesn't work, and since you Ganesh, have not followed up with further comment or explanation and the reassurance that "it is being worked on," in other strings has also not being followed up on, I demand (on behalf of all who have purchased 32 gig MS devices running full windows 8.1) that this feature be reimposed, or refund me the value of my device your software has castrated.

This is not poor design, it now looks like deliberate design obsolescence.  We were not warned of this loss of feature and it has had a fiduciary impact on countless user's certified windows 8.1 devices, rendering the implied features, functions and benefits, given at the point of sale, fraudulent and requiring either immediate attention, followup and a fix and or patch, or inversely,  rescission on the part of MS and it's partners.

Ganesh Please respond immediately and watch the posts you comment on for outcomes.  Take your position seriously and this problem seriously, or cease commenting on problems altogether.

Justin Strachan

Hi,

Welcome to Windows.

You can change Windows App Store install drive so that you can use a secondary, but it is not recommended.

There is a drawback using this method. Since you change the app install location, whenever you try to update already installed apps which were installed in default location before applying this Registry tweak, the apps will refuse to update and will show error message. It happens because the old installation path and the new installation path at the time of update do not match.

1. Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx

3. In right-side pane, you'll see a String PackageRoot containing "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" as its value.
4. You just need to change its value to your desired drive or folder. But Windows will not allow you to modify its value because you don't have required permissions.

To change the value, you'll need to take ownership of "Appx" key using following link:

Take Ownership of a File or Folder.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

5. After taking ownership and assigning full control to your user account, double-click on PackageRoot and change its value to your custom location such as E:\WindowsApps or any other location.
6. That's it. Close Registry Editor and restart your system and now whenever you'll install a new app from Store, it'll be installed in the new location instead of default installation location.

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ )

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Are you sure this works in Win 8.1 (I have a Surface Pro 2)

This worked in Windows 8, but, does not work in 8.1.

Like many others, I have a 32GB Venue 8 Pro and it is very frustrating to be limited by this when I've got a 64GB SD card in the device. I'd hoped to be able to install apps on the SD card and leave space free on the SSD for desktop programs. Those of us who did this in Windows 8 know it worked well so it makes me wonder about what's the significant difference in 8.1 that forced MS to remove such a useful capability? I wouldn't call it a feature since it took a registry change to enable, but, it was there nonetheless.

Try to format your secondary drive with NTFS file system format...  Backup your file before doing this.If all apps still fail to install, that means theres nothing else u can do.

Hope this help :)

Post performing this process all apps fail to install.  I see that the directory structure is created as registry defines but all apps fail with error. 

Reverted back to default path and all apps install without issue.