Move Installed Programs to another Drive in Windows 11

After your computer upgraded to Windows 11, how much free space left on your C drive?

Windows 11 needs 64 GB free space for the installation, which is one of the necessary hardware requirements according to Microsoft’s official news.

We suggest you leave 15%-20% space on your C drive because system will have cache data, system patch, various temp files, and many system files are compressed before installation, and they will become larger after decompression. Moreover, system operation also needs buffer space, so ensure that there is enough space for installation and operation.

Usually, users have 2 directions to choose, one is to extend drive space. Users can use diskpart and Disk Management to try, if there’s an unallocated space right behind the C drive, otherwise, it won’t work.

The other choice is to move files or programs to another location. Small files can be moved with “Copy & Paste” function, however, moving installed programs is not that simple. For users, there are some “untraceable” data files of installed applications that have been stored in C drive. Once the source file cannot be found in the location recorded on the C drive, and the program will run into problems. Thus, users can’t move installed programs as move the files.

How to move installed programs to another drive in Windows 11?

Then, if you want to move some installed programs for releasing more free space or for other reasons, how to move installed programs to another drive in Windows 11, and make sure the moved applications will boot & run successfully? Here, we introduce 2 ways for you.

1.   Move Apps via Windows Settings

Just the same as Windows 10, users can enter Settings and go to “Apps & features”, click the program, select the destination drive and move it. It’s easy.

However, Windows Settings only allows users to move some of all programs. If you click a program, the “Move” button is greyed out, then this application is unmovable.

2.   An easy-to-use application mover

If you discover that the majority of the applications you want to relocate are marked as “Unmovable,” don’t be alarmed; this does not imply that you cannot move them. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is just the tool you want. This is a professional disk/partition manager with many practical capabilities to assist you in resolving disc management issues.

What AOMEI Partition Assistant can do:

  • Convert MBR system disk to GPT without data loss
  • Clone the whole disk
  • Allocate free space from one drive to another.
  • resize/create/delete/format/merge/wipe partition
  • Migrate OS without reinstalling
  • Create Windows to Go USB drive
  • App Mover

The “App Mover” function can automatically discover all required data files of the software you’re about to move, including files scattered across the C drive. Following that, everything will be transmitted with the software, ensuring the migration’s success. Users do not need to reinstall the relocated software; it will continue to boot and execute as before. Isn’t it simple? Let’s get into the specifics. Step 1. Install and run Partition assistant, click “All Tools” feature in the left menu, then select the “App Mover”.

Step 2. In the next window, you will see all partitions. Select one partition that you want to move applications from, click “Next”.

Step 3. Choose applications and select the target location, then click “Move”.

Step 4. Then, please confirm forcibly closing running applications when moving starts. Click “OK”.

Then the migration is over, you can check the store path by right click the program and click “Properties”.

These two methods of migrating installed programs are both simple for all users, but, Windows Settings has many limits to restrict users to move their programs. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional allows users to transfer almost all applications, and users can use it to move programs to another hard drive if they need, also without reinstallation.

What’s more, AOMEI Partition Assistant is a thoughtful tool for different types of users. It has Server edition for Windows Server users, and Tech edition for enterprises and services providers.

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