Windows 10 is probably the best version of the Windows operating system to date. Not just because it’s the latest version of Windows, but because of the number of features and improvements it ships with.
For the first time, Microsoft has designed and developed a version of the Windows operating system based on user feedback. Many of the features that should have been present in previous Windows versions are finally available in Windows 10.
For instance, in previous Windows versions, it was impossible to choose the default installation drive of installed apps without the help of third-party tools and workarounds.
In Windows 10, there is an in-built provision to change the default install location of apps downloaded from the official Windows Store. Additionally, if you’re running out of free space on the system drive, Windows 10 allows you to move installed apps to another drive from the default drive to gain some disk space.
Why move installed apps to a different drive?
The feature to move installed apps to another drive might not be useful for users who have hundreds of GBs of free space on their system drive. And the good thing is you neither need to re-install the app or nor open Command Prompt as an administrator to accomplish the job.
The feature comes in handy when the drive where you have installed apps is running out of free space. By moving installed apps to a different drive you can quickly free up GBs of space on your system drive.
The only downside of this feature is that it doesn’t let you move traditional desktop programs like Microsoft Office or Google Chrome. To move these desktop programs, you will need to go for third-party software (see our how to move installed programs to another drive).
Move apps to another drive in Windows 10
To move installed apps to a different drive, follow the given below directions.
Step 1: Open the Settings app by either clicking the Settings icon on the Start menu or using Windows + I keyboard shortcut.
Step 2: In the Settings app, navigate to Apps > Apps & features to view all installed apps and their installation date.
Step 4: Click on the app entry that you would like to move to a different drive to see Move and Uninstall options. Click the Move button and then select a drive of your choice to move the app, and then click the Movie button.
NOTE: Windows 10 doesn’t let you move preinstalled apps.
You will see a progress bar (beneath the selected app) to show the status.
As mentioned before, when you click on a traditional desktop program or an app that came preinstalled with Windows 10, Windows 10 offers only the Uninstall option and you can’t move desktop applications using this method. To move desktop programs, please follow our how to move programs from one drive to another guide. Good luck!
