How To Install Apps On External Hard Drive Windows 10

Windows 10 allows yous to install apps from the Store on any drive y'all similar. You can also motion apps y'all've previously installed to a new location without uninstalling and reinstalling them.

You tin store apps on either an internal or external drive. A secondary internal hard drive or partitioning will work fine, but y'all can also utilise this trick to store apps on an SD carte or USB drive.

Expanding Your PC's Storage

If you lot have a Windows 10 tablet or laptop PC with a small-scale corporeality of storage, an SD card may be the ideal mode to expand its storage—both for apps and other types of content.

First, yous'll need to get an SD card that fits your device. Depending on your device, you may demand a larger SD carte du jour or a smaller microSD card (which are oft sold with adapters that allow them to function as larger SD cards, besides).

If the SD card sticks out of the side of your laptop or tablet when you insert it, you lot may want to consider a "low-profile" microSD card. These are a flake shorter than standard SD cards, and they will sit flush with the edge of tablets and laptops where a standard-size SD menu sticks out. This makes it more user-friendly to leave the SD card inserted for the permanent storage boost.

RELATED: How to Buy an SD Card: Speed Classes, Sizes, and Capacities Explained

When buying an SD card, remember that it's not all about toll, either. Storage classes matter. You wouldn't want to use the slowest class of SD card for apps, as that will just slow down the apps unnecessarily.

How to Select the Install Location for New Apps

To change the install location for new apps, head to Settings > Arrangement > Storage. Click "Change where new content is saved" under More than storage settings.

Click the box under "New apps will save to" and select a connected drive. Click "Apply one time you lot're washed to salve your changes.

Yous can also choose a default save location for new documents, music, pictures, and video files here. By default, they're all saved to your C: drive.

This setting only affects apps from the Store. If you're installing traditional desktop apps, you tin choose the install location in the traditional manner, during installation. The application volition probably want to install itself to C:\Program Files\ by default, just y'all can provide a unlike location while clicking through the installation sorcerer.

How to Motion Installed Apps to Some other Bulldoze

Modify the above setting and new apps you install will be stored in the location you choose. Withal, any currently installed apps won't exist moved.

You can motility already installed apps, if y'all like. There'southward no limit to the number of different drives you can store apps on. This allows you to make the most of the storage space you have available.

To do this, caput to Settings > Apps > Apps & features. Click an app and click the "Move" button.

You'll be prompted to select another drive, and you can then click "Move" to move the app to that drive.

If yous see a "Modify" button instead of a move button, yous've selected a traditional desktop app. You lot can't motion it from here. If yous encounter a "Motility" push button that's grayed out, you've selected a Microsoft-provided app that was included with Windows 10. You can't move those apps, either. You tin can only move apps you've installed from the Store.

The Store Asks You When Yous Download Large Apps

When you endeavour to download a especially large app from the Store—for example, a big PC game that may be tens of gigabytes in size—you'll encounter a prompt asking you lot to select a bulldoze where you install the app.

This prompt merely appears when you lot try to download peculiarly large apps, and there'due south no way to get it to appear when downloading smaller apps. Information technology provides a warning that you're about to download an app that volition take a lot of space on your organization.

What if Y'all Unplug the Drive?

If you install or move apps to an external drive similar an SD carte du jour or USB bulldoze and unplug it from your computer, the apps on information technology won't role anymore. Reconnect the storage to the calculator and everything will work normally over again.

This is why y'all aren't allowed to move built-in apps to different storage locations. If they're on your system drive, they'll always be available. As well, if yous're installing a particularly of import app that you lot want available even if you remove the external storage device from your arrangement, y'all should install it on your main system drive so it's always available.