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

Anonymous

Dear sir /madam

I am a new windows user ,

And been disabled after a stroke left me with out right side function, which left me less feeling a person.

But with windows 8.1 on a tablet has opened up a whole new world .

The only problem is that their are so many types of windows tablet out , and also different specs.

With many People on a budget it is important that the tablet you buy is right.

Their are different CPUs , ram, hdd, sizes .

But I assumed that if the tablet could run windows 8.1 , then the tablet would be pretty good spec.

I brought a 8 inch touch Lenovo mix 2 8. Which is a Intel quid core , with a 2 gb ram and 32 gb had .

And it has windows 8.1 and office student included for £240

The problem I have learnt know after using for one week is the hdd space has dropped from 32gb to just 10gb

And I found out every time I install a windows 8.1 app it installs to the c: drive as default.

and you cannot change drive to install to.

I.e I have put in a micro 64gb ad card and I could install windows apps to that card I would free up main c: drive.

Why can't you change Install Drive for apps .

It just seems to me that Microsoft don't want you use windows 8.1 and to get so fed up that people shy away from it.

Because of range of different specs from smart phones and tablets , they all have one thin in common , they have expansion slots.

And in order for customers to use windows 8.1 properly people need to have access to their sd card as a drive for windows apps to save to.

At the moment I have had to format my tablet 5 times to free up my main hard drive , just so I can install different apps to try .

And unless I have a massive budget to buy a tablet with a say 250 gb main drive , then I cant enjoy windows properly

.and I would have thought that windows want you to buy as many apps as possible .

I here windows are doing a spring update , I think they should include a patch so people can change the default drive for window's apps

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Anonymous

2014-03-02T03:45:05+00:00
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
1. In right-side pane, you'll see a String PackageRoot containing "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" as its value.
2. 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
1. 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.
2. 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.
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Anonymous

2014-03-02T14:08:48+00:00

I have done what you said , and changed the install directory of the windows 8.1 apps to my micro ad card (64gb).

and I rebooted system an tried to instal asphalt 8 . And got this error

error code 0x80070005

i hope you can help thanks
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Anonymous

2014-03-10T19:29:58+00:00

I tried this method. I am using a Dell Venue 8 Pro and I have limited space on this 32GB hard drive and have the same problem.

This method does not work as I think Microsoft has changed this within Windows 8.1 because it is allowed in Windows 8. If there are any other solutions to this please post them.

PC: Dell Venue 8 Pro

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

Problem: Setting default download location for Metro apps.
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Anonymous

2014-06-06T20:41:10+00:00

Seeing Same issue as ZackBowling on 8.1, can someone from MS address this question?
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Anonymous

2014-06-06T20:42:53+00:00

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.
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