Unfortunately this is a common Microsoft "issue". They have an affinity to the OS drive in many cases and there's not much you can do to make a Microsoft application completely install to another drive. I don't have a reference to show you regarding this, but if you search the web for ways to move program files or even user directories to a drive other than where the OS is installed you'll find several "official" responses from Microsoft saying that don't support it - despite there being registry keys that help you do this. (for example this link)
I've had limited success hacking my way around this using mlink /D <OS-drive directory the app insists on using> <directory on other drive you want the app to install to>
. However, this requires that you know the OS-drive directory that it's going to want to use prior to the installation, and that the directory is not already there.
You can of course move the directory to the other drive after installation and use mklink
to make a link at the original OS-drive location that points to the new location, but be aware that moving a directory to another drive may reset directory permissions, convert sparse files to full length files, and mess with symbolic links or alternate data streams. That's why making the link before installation is preferred.
Note that the "Users" directory in particular is a weird one. I've made custom Windows installs that have this directory on a non-OS drive and everything seems to work fine initially. But, inevitably I always end up with some odd issue that is only resolved by setting up a user with a profile on the OS-drive (ie. C:\Users\test
instead of D:\Users\test
) and performing whatever operation I was having problems with under that user.
And, as I said before, there are Microsoft knowledge base articles that caution against doing this and essentially say that it's not supported.
Caution Using the ProgramData setting to redirect folders to a drive
other than the system volume will block your ability to upgrade to
future versions of Windows.
By changing the default location of the user profile directories or
program data folders to a volume other than the system volume, you
cannot service your Windows installation. Any updates, fixes, or
service packs cannot be applied to the installation. We recommend that
you do not change the location of the user profile directories or
program data folders.
Also: Does Visual Studio 2013 Express require space on the system drive?. Outside of the scope of your VS query, your question is too broad as any installer can do just about anything it wants.
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2016-09-27T18:03:35.717