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#1
Install personal programs to a partition separate from OS partition?
Hello.
I have bought a powerful new computer preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) and I would like to try and make future life with this computer and Windows 7 as easy as possible.
So I am wondering if I create a new separate d:\ partition and restore all my old and new programs and my data files to that d:\ partition, will all my own programs operate? For example, will Firefox operate if I install it to the new d:\ partition? And if I install Firefox to the d:\ partition will it install entirely to that new partition, or will it throw certain Firefox files into c:\windows or possibly other directories on the c:\ drive?
The reason I am asking is that it seems to me that it would be great if I could occasionally reinstall Windows 7 to the c:\ drive (after formatting the c:\ drive first). As reinstalling Windows 7 from the Recovery partition is so easy, it would be great to know that if Windows 7 becomes sluggish or develops problems at some point in the future, or if I just mess it up with configurations and I want to get back to the clean factory default, I could just reinstall it to c:\ WITHOUT losing all my own programs and my own data on the separate d:\ partition (of course I would always have been saving everything of my own to that separate d:\ partition).
What's causing me to ask this question is my recollection that back when I was using Windows 3.1, many years ago, a number of my personal programs (like Microsoft Word, for example) used to place *.ini files and certain other files into the c:\windows or system directory. This may still be the case. On the other hand, Windows 7 is clearly a powerful program and maybe there are now ways to avoid mixing my programs and data into the c:\ drive?
Or does Windows 7 operate very much like XP and earlier Windows programs, in that you need to install all your own personal programs to the drive where the operating system is situated (usually the c:\ drive)?
Thank you .