ONLY system files on partition?

[Kaitlyn]

Is there ANY way to have ONLY the core windows files on a partition, and installed programs (successfully) on another partition?

[Cafe_333]

Yes. I did that once - when you install programs you don't have to install them to C:\Program Files. You can install them to a D:\ drive if you wanted to. Not sure what the benefit that will be for you though. Are you thinking about keeping your C: drive expendible so that you can always format/reinstall windows and still have your programs work? Unfortunately many programs have dependencies to windows system files anyway so it would no longer work if you formatted your C: drive and reinstalled windows.

[board123]

There's no point in doing this. If anything, it will actually decrease performance because your hard drive needs to move back and forth between the two partitions whenever you run any program.

Like Cafe_333 said, your programs won't be any good if you lose your OS partition anyway. And to answer the actual question, there is NO way to totally separate the two things. When you install programs, your registry gets modified and possibly you get new files added to your system folders. There's no way around this.

[Kaitlyn]

alright, didn't think so but it was worth a check

thanks

[prying eyes]

No...its still worth a check...

1. there are lots of programs which will work even after re-formatting and installing the OS (trial n error..or just google search by adding "portable" before the program name and check the results)

2....there are other types of programs which will store their data/history/ or whatever in their default directory...for those programs, u can change the path to another partition/drive..then once re-installed after a format, just point again to that path..and the program will work with all ur previous data/history intact...

3. Some programs may also require the registry entries added at the time of installation...for those programs..normally i just backup the registry entries (of course the program is installed to a different partiton, so it stays there) and then merge the reg values after a format..(this can be a tedious process, but if u have another pc with the same program installed, it makes easier to find missing entries after a re-format..)

In all the cases, if u need a startmenu, then u will have to maually create a folder in the all programs/desktop..

alright, didn't think so but it was worth a check

thanks