Is there a way to move these installer folders/directories and filesto another drive?

[Ant]

Hello!

Is there a way to move these two disk hoggers that making my C: drive
free space smaller and smaller due to a lot of programs installed?

C:\WINDOWS\Installer
C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information

I would love to move them to E: drive if possible. I don't feel like
reformatting and reinstalling everything.

Thank you in advance.
--
"Hey dad, look. I put honey on my back, and now the ants are carrying me
home." --Chris from Family Guy
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is/was listening to a song on his home computer: Konami - Gyruss

 

[DL]

You can simply move the Installshield folder, but then you may not be able
to uninstall apps that used this
Configure your Internet Options IE Folder to use 50mb only
Uninstall apps on C and custom install to the other drive
Relocate My Documents Folder to other drive
Buy a new hd

 

[Ant]

I also want to tell Windows where those two locations moved to like E:
drive. Is that possible? TweakUI doesn't seem to have an option for
these two.

I already moved my swap file to another drive, made temporary internet
files 1 MB, deleted a lot of stuff like Pinball, wallpapers, made system
restore point 200 MB, moved %temp% to another drive, etc.

You can simply move the Installshield folder, but then you may not be able
to uninstall apps that used this
Configure your Internet Options IE Folder to use 50mb only
Uninstall apps on C and custom install to the other drive
Relocate My Documents Folder to other drive
Buy a new hd

--
"I like ants, in chocolate. Crunch, hummmm." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is/was listening to a song on his home computer: Track 01

 

[DL]

Don't believe so, the info I believe is imbedded in the installer files
There is also the win update files, eg $NtUninstallKB*****, though once
deleted you will not be able to uninstall any of these updates
What size is your C and freespace
and your other hd/partition
You moved My Documents?

 

[Ant]

I already got rid of those disk hogging Windows Updates except for last
week's updates (keep those for a few weeks before nuking). I have a 4.18
GB C: drive with about 900 MB free. I used most of the free space for
Linux and other partitions (bad idea--I know). "My Documents" take about
16.4 MB. Also, I forgot to mention I used disk compression already for
most of the files and folders/directories.

Don't believe so, the info I believe is imbedded in the installer files
There is also the win update files, eg $NtUninstallKB*****, though once
deleted you will not be able to uninstall any of these updates
What size is your C and freespace
and your other hd/partition
You moved My Documents?

--
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[DL]

There's not a lot else you can do, other than buy a larger hd.
Personally I'd suggest a win, C drive/partition, of 10 -15gb and that with
Apps, and My Docs, installed on a separate partition.

 

[Lawrence J. Gardner]

Yes. FIRST ... BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY

1. Start Menu | Run | regedit
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer

Change the value to new location ... for easy manipulation (see following),
I would keep the pathname the same except for the Drive letter, e.g.
E:\Windows\Installer

1. Move current Installer folder to new location
2. Search the registry for the old pathname and change the drive letter

Future installations should install there. If you have problem with
previous installed, they should ask for location of the *.msi, and you can
point them to the correct location, or re-install.

Most shoulkd not though, if you are thorough in the registry modifications
(especially in the Installer Key (and sub-keys)).

 

[Ant]

Thanks. I will try this later. I don't feel like breaking my XP at the
moment.

Yes. FIRST ... BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY

1. Start Menu | Run | regedit
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer

So, I have to go through every single key to change?

I exported this key to a text file to copy and paste, but it was about
4.2 MB! Wow. I do have lots of stuff!

Change the value to new location ... for easy manipulation (see following),
I would keep the pathname the same except for the Drive letter, e.g.
E:\Windows\Installer

1. Move current Installer folder to new location
2. Search the registry for the old pathname and change the drive letter

Future installations should install there. If you have problem with
previous installed, they should ask for location of the *.msi, and you can
point them to the correct location, or re-install.

Most shoulkd not though, if you are thorough in the registry modifications
(especially in the Installer Key (and sub-keys)).

Yeah, maybe I won't move them. 4 MB!

--
"When the people look like ants -- PULL. When the ants look like people
-- PRAY." --A skydiving quote
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[jstorch]

Possibly a better solution...

I know this is a pretty old thread but I figured everyone might benefit from a different solution.
It is easier and safer to use the SysInternal tool "junction" to create a junction point to a different location.

1. Move the installer directory to E:\Windows\Installer\
2. Create a new directory in C:\Windows named "Installer"
3. Run the following command from the "C:\Windows" directory.

junction -d Installer e:\Windows\Installer
​

Now the Installer directory can live on a bigger drive and Windows still thinks it is in C:\Windows\
Cheers.