Windows 10: Moving AppData under Windows 10 - possible?

Under Windows 7 and Windows 8 moving 'C:\Users\<name>\AppData' to another drive was a simple 5 minute operation: just move the folder, create and 'AppData' junction in its place and edit such junctions as 'SendTo', 'NetHood' and a bunch of others. Everything worked perfectly.

Under Windows 10 it doesn't work anymore. Trying to do the above immediately kills all "metro" applications and components and disables Start Menu.

So, did anyone know what else needs to be done in order to relocate 'AppData' under Windows 10? Any word on whether it is even possible?

:)

 

Cortana and moving appdata folder

I tried doing that and now the start menu, notifications and right clicking on icons on the taskbar work on my other windows user account. However that account still has issues: The windows store doesn't work and when I clicked it in my apps it's icon
disappeared. Same thing happened with calculator and other apps.

 

Cortana and moving appdata folder

Hi,



Thank your for posting in Microsoft Community. Thank you for your suggestion.

This issue might be occurring due to corrupted system files. Try following steps and check if it helps.

• 
  Open the Task manager.
  Here's a tip: Press Ctrl + Shift +
  Esc.
  
• 
  Click File >
  Run New Task.
  
• 
  Make sure you have a check mark beside "Create this task with administrative privileges".
  
• 
  Type CMD.
  
• 
  Type the following 4 commands at the CMD prompt:
  
  • • 
      dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
      
    • 
      sfc /scannow
      
    • 
      powershell
      
    • 
      Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
      
      
• 
  Close the CMD window.
  

Hope this helps. Please reply if you need further assistance.



Thank you.

 

Bump please I registered just to say I have the same problem and is there anyway around it!

 

Hi all. I'm other newbie here.

I explain what I did for moving data only for AppData\Roaming folder.

See what is your current "Roaming" folder, typing %AppData% in command line, surely it will show C:\<Users>\<User>\AppData\Roaming..

Create a new folder in the desired location (or use xCopy to create tree copy of its original with same security attributes, FreeFileSync.. so on).

Right-click on both folders and check atttributes. Ensure that the new folder has exactly the same security attributes than the original.

Use Windows Explorer to right-click on current Roaming folder and right-click on "Location" tab. Set the new location and follow the assistance when it suggest you to move the content of the folder to the new location.

That's all. Regards.

 

This is actually pretty cool! I was unaware of the fact that `%APPDATA\Roaming` , `Local` and `LocalLow` folder provide the opportunity to change their location in their properties. Interesting. Thank you for this.

One concern I have about this though, is that the `Location` property is only available for `Roaming` , `Local` and `LocalLow` folders of the currently active user. This means that some files under these folders might be in use by currently running processes and therefore locked/inaccessible. Does this create any problems when attempting to relocate these folders?

 

I've only moved the Roaming folder (because as far as I know it acts as "default user data location" for most of the programs in Win7... so in Win10 too, doesn't?).

In Win7 all I had need was to change the location following the instructions after clicking on location tab of properties, but on Win10 it failed because the system had created the destination folder with different security attributes. I hadn't had problems with files in use when I did the change.

I've never touched Local neither LocalLow folders.

 

You could relocate all user folders - this takes %appdata% and everything else in user folders. There is a tutorial here if this would help you do what you want... Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Heh, Halasz, thanks, great link. I never new about this so didn't give it much thought. Possibly in future to save space on C drive mainly I might do this. Bookmarked. Goodstuff!!*Smile

 

Is there a way to keep the app data folder on C while moving the other folders like user folders and download etc to another drive? I'm experiencing longer loading times after relocating the folders because i moved the user folder to the slow HDD instead of my fast SSD C drive.

 

Individual user folders like Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Searches, Contacts etc. are easily movable to a different location through Location tab in folder properties (if that's what you are asking about).

 

I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong tab but thank you for your help!