Programs already installed have been duplicated?

Question

Hello,

I've come across a very strange problem whereby after a recent update all my programs seem to have been duplicated from one drive to another?

My system is set up as follows:

OS is Windows 10

C: is an SSD that contains the OS.

D: is a 1TB HDD where I install all my programs

Now I don't know why but for some reason all the programs that are installed in D:\Program Files and D:\Program Files(x86) have been duplicated to C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files(x86) respectively. I can't narrow down which update may have caused this to happen, however it's caused me a massive headache in terms of broken startup programs, program shortcuts, program settings, services and SQL instances. Luckily my SQL databases are backed up so I can simply restore them, however it's not very convenient having to go through and remove all the duplicated programs and their remnants.

Has anyone else come across this issue before and/or have an answer as to why it would happen?

Thanks

Answer 1

These are programs that, when running the installer, allow you to change which drive to install them to. 

What I've done is renamed both D:\Program Files and D:\Program Files (x86), updated all my shortcuts, startup entries etc and started reinstalling programs. So far so good, programs seem to be functioning as expected.

Answer 2

Are you modifying the program installs at all, or are these programs that let you choose which drive to install them upon.

I've never advised to do this so wouldn't be the person to ask if you intend to continue. There are too many possible unintended consequences, especially with Windows 10.

Answer 3

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the response.

The reason I offload most programs onto a HDD is because my SSD is not big enough to take all the programs I have installed (only 240GB). So my OS, games and AV/Firewall are on the SSD whilst the rest of my programs are on the HDD. Not ideal I know however not much choice to be honest until the price of 1TB SSDs drop a little more :) 

For now I've managed to remove the broken programs and have a quick tidy up. However before reinstalling them would it be worth renaming the Program Files and Program Files(x86) folders on the D: drive, updating any relevant shortcuts and environment variables so that the chances of further problems occuring are reduced? 

Yeah I've used Macrium a few times in the past when upgrading hardware etc, no complaints :)

Cheers

Answer 4

Hi Tyrone. I'm Greg, an installation specialist and 8 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

It sounds like it may have done a version upgrade which is an in-place Upgrade and somehow moved the programs to the expected location on C drive. I cannot say how or why this happened except that it's another reason why I recommend always installing programs to C so that they remain with the System image where they create registry keys that need to remain until they are properly uninstalled. But even more importantly, if you offload programs from an SSD to a HDD then you are losing the speed benefit of the SSD for those programs. This is not true of files, which can more easily be located on another hard drive because this does not result in any speed differential.

So as long as your programs are now referenced on C, I would leave them and if you need to move anything then move the User folders to the hard drive following this guide: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1964-move-u...

You will need to use another more flexible imaging app since Windows built-in app (which is being phased out) will want to include the User folders location in the image. I recommend free Macrium for imaging backup to the secondary drive, so that if WIndows ever becomes irreparable you can restore C in 20 minutes and your User folders will be safe and current in their hard drive location. https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-re...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.