How to Change Default Save Location for Windows 10 Apps
Windows 10 by default saves all the apps downloaded from Microsoft Store to the ‘C’ drive on your hard disk. This may cause problems for the guys with smaller hard disk sizes. If users download too many apps from the Store, the ‘C‘ drive may run out of storage space. You can easily solve this issue if you change the default save location for Windows 10 apps. However initial Windows 10 builds didn’t allow the users to change the default save location for Microsoft Store apps.
Microsoft acknowledged this issue and released a patch in November 2015 build to solve this issue. With Windows 10 1511 and later builds, you can save Microsoft Store’s apps to a different drive instead of the default ‘C‘ drive. You can get this build by either downloading the latest Windows 10 ISO or by running Windows Updates.
UPDATE: With the release of Windows 10 1709 Fall creator update, storage settings page has changed. We have updated the method for changing default app save location in Windows 10 Fall Creator update 1709.
A) Change Default App Save Location in Windows 10 1709 and Newer Builds
This tutorial shows you, how to change the default save location for Windows 10 store apps. As mentioned above, the process is slightly different for Windows 10 version 1607 and earlier builds. So, we will first check for build 1709 and newer. After that, we will see the process for the build number 1607.
Step 1: Open Storage Settings
In Windows 10 1709 and later builds, the Storage Settings page has changed. Some of the important storage options have been moved under “Change where new content is saved“. Click on this option to go to the new settings page.
Now you will see options for changing default storage settings for various things like Apps, Documents, Music, Pictures, etc.
Step 2: Select New Default Save Location for Apps
The first option is to change the default app storage location. Click on the drop-down under “New apps will save to” and select the desired disk drive to save apps to. You can select any of the listed disk drives.
After selecting the desired disk drive, click on the Apply button to save changes.
SEE ALSO: How to Move Windows 10 Apps from C Drive to Another Drive?
B) Change Default App Save Location in Windows 10 version 1607
Now, we will see how to change the default app save location in Windows 10 version 1607.
Step 1: Open Storage Settings
First of all, go to Settings > System, and on the left side click on Storage on the left side. On the right side, you will see the storage spaces of your disk drives and under that, you will see Save Locations. The first option in Save locations is, “New apps will save to:“.
If you are running Windows 10 10240 build, these settings will be disabled. You have to run Windows Updates to get the latest Windows 10 build.
To run Windows Updates. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and click on Check for Updates to check for the latest updates. You will need to restart your PC after the update.
Step 2: Change Default App Save Location
You can now change the new app’s save location to another disk drive on your PC. Click on the drop-down list and select the desired disk drive to save Windows 10 store apps.
After selecting a new disk drive, you need to click on Apply to save the changes.
Now, you don’t need to worry about the size of the ‘C‘ drive. Going forward, Windows 10 will save all the new Store Apps to the ‘D‘ drive (or other selected drive) automatically. However, the apps which are already installed, won’t be moved automatically, you will have to move them manually.
SEE ALSO: How to Move SoftwareDistribution Folder from C Drive to D Drive in Windows 11 or 10?
Save Microsoft Store Apps to Other Drive and Save Space in C Drive
Now, all your new apps will be saved to the disk drive that you selected. As mentioned earlier, the existing Microsoft apps won’t be moved to the new disk drive automatically, you will have to move them manually. You can check this tutorial for the detailed process.
Hope you liked this tutorial. Feel free to share your thoughts, queries, and suggestions in the comment section below. You may also like to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest tutorials directly into your inbox.
SEE ALSO:
1. How to Extend C Drive Space in Windows 10?
2. How to Uninstall Preinstalled Windows 10 Apps using PowerShell?
