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General discussion

Setting Default Location for Program Installation?

by Lyn Layton Aug 5, 2004 1:31PM PDT

I have received a screenshot of "strange files" in my father's "My Documents". It looks to me as if he has legitimate programs executing from there. I am certain that he "forgets" to make sure new programs are being installed in "Program Files". Is there a way to configure the default location for installation of new programs in XP Home (rather than browsing for a directory)? I do not have XP, so I can't look, and Google did not seem to come up with the answer.
Thanks.

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4 Posts
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Re: Setting Default Location for Program Installation?
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 5, 2004 1:37PM PDT

Lyn,

Normal program installations are placed by default into the "C drive-Program Files" location. Unless the installation asks, you can't change that default without altering the installation setup. What type of "strange files" are you referring to? And what legitimate programs are executing from the "My Documents" folder?.

Hope this helps and please be a little more specific.

Grif

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Re: Setting Default Location for Program Installation?
by Lyn Layton Aug 5, 2004 10:37PM PDT

Grif, whenever he installs new/updated programs (ie, Mailwasher, Mozilla, etc.) they end up running out of "My Documents". The latest one is the Firefox 9.3 update. Whenever I have had the computer to do cleaning, I have had to move programs from there to his "Program Files".
I was thinking that perhaps the default location has somehow been changed (probably human error) and that it might need to be reset. If that is not the case, he must be changing it every time he installs a new program.

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Re: Setting Default Location for Program Installation?
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Aug 6, 2004 4:34AM PDT

Lyn,

Since it's upgrades that are having the problem, my guess is that it's "operator error". Many upgrades will offer a particular location for the install and that needs to be checked closely before doing the installation.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Thank You
by Lyn Layton Aug 6, 2004 10:51AM PDT

Thank you, Grif. I shall remind him again.

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