AOMEI Partition Assistant
How to Safely Move Programs without Reinstalling?
This article will share how to move the program without reinstallation to help users when they happen to have programs that need to be moved but don’t want to reinstall.
By Lucas / Updated on May 12, 2023
How to move programs without reinstalling Windows 10?
Normally, when we want to move an installed program to another location, we choose to uninstall it and then reinstall it.
As the registry items and some other system-related files are involved, the method of simply copying the program directory to move to other hard disks is inadvisable. The final result is that users are likely to receive an error message.
Thus, in the next part, we’ll introduce you to 2 methods to move installed programs without laborious operations to reinstall them. If you are eager to find a method, please skip to method two.
Way 1. Move programs via Windows 10 Settings
This method only applies to the programs you install from the Microsoft Store. If you want to move the application to a different hard drive without reinstalling it, you can repeat this process.
Step 1. Right-click on the “Windows” icon and select “Apps and Features”.
Step 2. Select the application you wish to move, click “Move”, then select the target hard disk, and click “Move” again.
1. If the Move button is grayed out, it means that this program is unmovable.
2. If you see the “Modify” button, it means this is a traditional desktop program.
Step 3. After the application is moved, Windows 10 will automatically create a folder for the moved application.
Although this method is convenient, it only applies to moving programs that are downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and it doesn’t support moving programs in batches.
Therefore, I recommend you another method to move one or more programs with no need to reinstall, and all transferred apps can boot smoothly as before.
Way 2. The best way to move programs without reinstalling
As we all know, when you want to move a program to another disk, it’s unavailable by copying and pasting. Because the installation path has been specified when the program is installed, and moving any of them will bring the boot failure to this application.
So, how to move programs without reinstalling them to another drive in Windows 10?
The simplest way is to use a handy tool. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is such a choice for you. With its “App Mover” feature, you can easily and securely move programs without reinstalling them to another drive.
Step 1. Install and launch Partition assistant, click “Free up” then select the “App Mover” feature.
Step 2. In the new window, you will see all partitions, and the number and size of installed programs on every partition will also be displayed. Select one partition that you want to move applications from and click "Next".
Step 3. Choose the applications you want to move and select the target location, then click "Move".
Step 4. In the pop-up window, you need to confirm forcibly closing running applications when moving starts. Click "OK" to begin the process.
Warning: To ensure the apps run properly, please don't move or delete files in the source and target directories.
Step 5. Move completed.
Restore programs
If you want to move the transferred programs back to the original location, you can continue to use the App Mover function.
Step 1. Click “All Tools” in the left menu, then select the “App Mover” feature.
Step 2. Click “Manage/Restore Apps” in the interface.
Step 3. In this step, all previously moved applications will be displayed here, please tick the applications that need to be restored, and then click Restore.
Step 4. There will still be a warning message before the restoration to confirm that the running application is forcibly closed. Please click “OK” to start the restoration process.
Step 5. Restore completed.
After the move, your drive will release much free space, if you want to release more, you can try "Delete Large Files" to deeply clean your PC.
1. You can view all the log information of application movement in Manage/Restore Apps/View Logs
2. To ensure the successful operation of the application, please do not manually manipulate the directories and files during the move or restore process, otherwise AOMEI Partition Assistant will not be able to detect them.
3. If you accidentally moved their location, you need to select the application, and then reload the current location under Manage/Restore Apps/ Repair Location, and then restore.
Further reading—Change install location in Windows 10
When we are installing a new program, the installation path will default to our C drive. If you don’t set another installation path, the programs will be stored on the C drive. As the program is installed more and more, the computer performance will naturally decrease due to insufficient space on the system disk.
It’s easy if you want to change the default installation location of programs on Windows 10. You can change it when you’re installing it, or try the following method.
Step 1. Right-click on the “Windows” icon, and select “System”.
Step 2. Click “Storage” on the left, and click “Change where new content is saved” under “More storage settings” on the right.
Step 3. Click “New apps will save to”, select a hard disk as the default installation location of the program, and finally click “Apply”.
Summary
Now you know how to move programs without reinstalling Windows 10. We recommend using AOMEI Partition Assistant to complete the movement of the program to avoid any risk of boot failure and other restrictions.
This powerful tool not only has an “App Mover” function, but also has practical functions such as “Migrate OS to SSD”, “Defrag Disk”, and so on. What’s more, this software supports Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista system, and the Server edition is specifically designed for Windows Server. With AOMEI Partition Assistant, all users can manage their disks securely and simply.
