How to Change Installation Location for App Store Apps in Windows 8
By default in Windows 8, the apps that you download from App Store are installed in the C:\ drive on your PC. If you’re an app junkie and keep on downloading the latest and greatest apps, you’ll eventually fill-up the entire drive and there’ll be no space for new apps. At such times, you may need to change the location of where the apps are installed. Windows 8 doesn’t provide any kind of options to change this, however, a third-party workaround will let you do that. Here’s how:
I. Before You Begin:
1. Close all the Modern Apps that are running on your PC.
II. Changing Installation Location for App Store Apps in Windows 8:
1. Open the Run Dialog box by pressing Windows Logo+R keys together.
2. Type in CMD and hit ENTER.
3. Now change the current working directory to system32 by issuing the following command:
cd C:\Windows\system32\
4. Next, type in following command into the CMD:
takeown /F “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps” /A /R
5. You now need to copy the current Windows Apps folder to the new location where the apps will be installed. The following command will copy the apps folder to F:\ drive on your PC.
robocopy “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps” “F:\WindowsApps” /E /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT
6. Now delete the source apps folder by entering following command:
rmdir /S “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps”
7. You may now want to connect the new location, just issue the following command to do so:
mklink /D “C:\Program Files\WindowsApps” “F:\WindowsApps”
8. Once it’s done, reboot your PC.
9. You’re all done!
Brilliant! You’ve successfully changed the installation location for App Store apps. From now on, the apps will be installed to the new location you chose in the steps above instead of the default location.
So I went through these steps exactly and now when I click on a metro app, it flips the app loading screen like normal, but then immidately closes it. No metro apps are working. I looked at the folder C:Program FilesWindowsApps and it’s showing as a mklink folder pointing to D:WindowsApps and I click it and all the files are there. Both the mklink and the actual folder on the D drive have full control permissions, including all sub folders. I’m not sure why this isn’t working.
This did not work, when I attempt to install a App from the store I get an error. I see the link and the existing apps in the new WindowsApp folder on the sd card but nothing. Do you have any update on this proceedure?
same issue, i see the link to D:WindowsApps but get an error when trying to install from the store. update please.
Did you update to the latest Windows 8.1?