Windows 10: Change Save Location for New Apps in Windows 10

Hello LolOlMe84, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It depends.

If you never installed any apps onto D, then it'll be safe to delete the "WindowsApps" folder if you like. You would have to take ownership of the folder first before you would be able to delete it though.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

If you did, then it's best to let it be.

 

I gather if under properties it says size "0 Kb" it's guaranteed empty with no hidden files or folders, so I'll go ahead and delete it.

Now that I've set the system to save apps on the C drive, should it have created a "WindowsApps" folder there, or at what stage is that folder auto-created?

 

That folder should be there by default on C, but it is hidden.

 

I did the "Take Ownership" and was still getting a message that I needed to get permission from PC Name\PC User (myself - the only account on the computer).

I gave up and cheated by just formatting the drive - wiping everything including WindowsApps. *Biggrin

 

LOL, that's one work around. *Wink

 

Has anyone been able to install new apps in different directories yet?

Kyle

 

Hello Kyle, *Smile

I've been able to successfully do so to another internal drive. It was formatted using NTFS.

 

I'm taking ownership of the "Windowsapps" folder that was created on my D Drive, but it still asks for permission. So I set the windowsapps back to my C Drive and tried to delete the Windowsapps folder on the D drive. It still gives that I don't have permission, so I restarted into recovery and launched command prompt, called notepad to find the folder and deleted it. Loaded up windows and the folder is now gone.

I wanted to make the folder manually, but the explorer.exe hangs, crash and restarts. Guess that mean the computer thinks the folder is still there. So the folder is gone, but now I can't create a folder named windowsapps. However going into the storage settings, I can set the save app location back to the D drive and windowsapps folder becomes visible again, but still can't grant permission.

Even with access to the Built-in Administrator I can't delete the folder, but I'm able to view it's contents. I even tried using powershell at system level to delete the folder, yet I'm hit with the permission massage. Formatting the drive is the last thing I want to do, is there some way to have full access to the folder?

 

Hello Xercaium, *Smile

The "Windowsapps" folder automatically created at the new save location is a protected operating system file, and Windows will not let you delete it from within Windows.

Messing with this folder could break the apps installed in it, and is one reason why Windows is so protective of it.

 

If that's the case, I'll just keep the apps on the C drive. At least I'm able to access that. I'll save some more money for a bigger SSD.

Edit:
I ended up formatting my D drive and manually created a WindowsApps folder. I then launched Powershell and used the Remove-AppxVolume (guess it clears the registry of the D drive location) and used Add-AppxVolume to set it back (maybe I didn't need to the Add/Remove-AppxVolume commands...). I then used the Set-AppxDefaultVolume to make the D drive the default. I now have full access to the folder and currently having new apps installing. This method wasn't working on build 10240 or maybe something was wrong with Windows, I don't know.

Edit 2:
Okay going back to my first option, it seems the powershell commands work and windows try installing apps, but stops half way with an error 80070005. Guess some permissions are not setup somewhere else in windows, since I gave the same permissions as windows did (had windows setup WindowsApps on a SD card and copied the permissions.). Great that we're able to install apps to SD or drives, but I don't like the idea of having a visible folder that I have no access too and can't delete if I should decide to use another drive.

 

I changed the save location to a different partition and i cannot gain access to that new folder. I have access to the default folder, but nothing that i've tried allows me to access the new location.

 

Hello Moutro, *Smile

That's normal to protect the folder where Windows is installing the Store apps.

You should be able to take ownership of it to be able to access it though.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

 

I tried again through CMD and Security settings and still can't get access.

 

In that case, you might see if changing the location again, and see if you are able to access the old location afterwards.

 

The location was already set to the previous (default) one. I switched it to the new one again and tried all previous steps, and still nothing.