How to move the Installer files?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Howard Kaikow
  • Start date Start date
H

Howard Kaikow

I just noticed that

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer

does not identify the Installer directory, the InstallerLocation key
identifies WinNT\System32

How can I change the location of the Installer directory without losing the
current files?

Can I COPY the files to another location, change a registry entry, then
reboot?
If so, what is the correct registry entry?
 
In said:
I just noticed that

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Inst
aller

does not identify the Installer directory, the
InstallerLocation key
identifies WinNT\System32
Click to expand...

That's "normal". Possibly indicates the parent of CatRoot (?)
How can I change the location of the Installer directory without
losing the current files?

Can I COPY the files to another location, change a registry
entry, then reboot?
If so, what is the correct registry entry?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't know that. And I've never heard that it is possible
(but it may be). If this is a disk free-space issue, then other
things can be moved or deleted or the volume possibly can be
resized. Including the OS, SP and MSI version may be useful.
 
Mark V said:
That's "normal". Possibly indicates the parent of CatRoot (?)


Sorry, I don't know that. And I've never heard that it is possible
(but it may be). If this is a disk free-space issue, then other
things can be moved or deleted or the volume possibly can be
resized. Including the OS, SP and MSI version may be useful.
Click to expand...

This is a multiboot system, with 3 drives as follows:

Drive 0: C-D
Drive 1: F-H
Drive 2: I-M

OS are on C, F, G and J.

J is really the only OS used, oS on C, F and G exist only to support
previous versions of Office, each OS has a different version of Office. I
use C, F and G when I need to test VBA in a particular version of Office or
to compile VB 6 with a particular version of Office.

Drive 0 is the original drive received from Micron.
C was originally 2GB and D 7GB.
I changed C to 3GB when the drive died and was replaced 6 years ago.

I have no need/expectation of adding software to C, but I do expect to be
able to apply updates to extant software.

When applying the update to Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7, it wants to save
very large files in the Installer directory. The drive has 441MB of free
space., heck that should be enough to apply any update, other than those
wasting space with huge Installer files.

Unless I can find a way to tell windows to move the Installer directory, I
believe that I am left with the following alternatives:

1. Fdisk drive 0 to increase the size of C and reduce the size of D, then
restore the files to the drives.

This would be easy IF the following will work. I run Retrospect when booted
to the J drive. So IF I can FDISK C and D while running in J, then I could
restore rather quickly. But I'm not sure whether I can do this. I can
replace all the files on C when J is running, but FDISK is a bit more
drastic.

2. Install Partition Magic to reallocate space between drive C and D.

3. Copy the Installer directory elsewhere, then use a registry editor to
change ALL occurrences of C:\Windows\Installer\ to the new location. Of
course, this may not change the default Installer location and the same
problem may arise in the future.

I prefer solution 1, if it will work.
 
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