Installing Programs in Non-system partition?

What would be the bad points, disadvantages or risks of creating a "Programs Folder" on a partition other than the OS partition and installing programs there?
My drive is partitioned C:, D:, and E: I have my OS on the standard C: drive, Vista64, but want to install software into a "program folder" on my D: partition.
Thanx

 

This is not a problem normally. Registry normally houses the installation path to a program if needed. Some programs are badly coded with a hard-coded path to installation folder. Usually older programs though.

What I do is install things like games onto other partition. I monitor each install with program called InstallRite. This captures the happenings of what was written or modified, both to files and registry. Then I export the registry vals and keep them with the program on the d:\Program Files directory. This way, if I have to restore c: from an image, my installs are still on d: and I just merge regfile to get functionality back. You will have to make your own shortcuts though doing this.

I have had some games that were installed to other than c: that gave problems though.

Sul.

 

Thanx Sully

 

I do it all the time. It makes imaging go faster and I am able to decrease the size of my OS partition that reduces head movement for speed. If you decide to put your data on another hard drive, you might consider using a synchronization copy data program to place the data on both drives. (I'm a belt and suspenders man ).

One word of caution, I found that some antiviruses may need to stay on your OS partition because of registry changes.

Have fun,
SourMilk out

 

Thanx SourMilk, good to know