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Expanding Your PC’s StorageIf you have a Windows 10 tablet or laptop PC with a small amount of storage, an SD card may be the ideal way to —both for apps and other types of content.First, you’ll need to get an SD card that fits your device. Depending on your device, you may need a larger SD card or a smaller microSD card (which are often sold with adapters that allow them to function as larger SD cards, too).If the SD card sticks out of the side of your laptop or tablet when you insert it, you may want to consider a “low-profile” microSD card. These are a bit shorter than standard SD cards, and they will sit flush with the edge of tablets and laptops where a standard-size SD card sticks out. This makes it more convenient to leave the SD card inserted for the permanent storage boost.RELATED:When, remember that it’s not all about price, either.
How to Make Windows Install Apps to an SD Drive or Other Drive. Insert an SD card, USB drive, or other external storage device that will be. Luckily, there's a way to get them off your internal drive and onto a different one.
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 AppsTo change the install location for new apps, head to Settings System Storage. Click “Change where new content is saved” under More storage settings.Click the box under “New apps will save to” and select a connected drive.
Click “Apply once you’re done to save your changes.You 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 can choose the install location in the traditional way, during installation. The application will probably want to install itself to C:Program Files by default, but you can provide a different location while clicking through the installation wizard. How to Move Installed Apps to Another DriveChange the above setting and new apps you install will be stored in the location you choose. However, any currently installed apps won’t be moved.You can move already installed apps, if you like. There’s 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, head 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 you see a “Modify” button instead of a move button, you’ve selected a traditional desktop app. You can’t move it from here. If you see a “Move” 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 can only move apps you’ve installed from the Store.
The Store Asks You When You Download Large AppsWhen you try to download a particularly large app from the Store—for example, a large PC game that may be tens of gigabytes in size—you’ll see a prompt asking you to select a drive where you install the app.This prompt only appears when you try to download particularly large apps, and there’s no way to get it to appear when downloading smaller apps. It provides a warning that you’re about to download an app that will take a lot of space on your system.What if You Unplug the Drive?If you install or move apps to an external drive like an SD card or USB drive and unplug it from your computer, the apps on it won’t function anymore. Reconnect the storage to the computer and everything will work normally again.This is why you aren’t allowed to move built-in apps to different storage locations. If they’re on your system drive, they’ll always be available. Likewise, if you’re installing a particularly important app that you want available even if you remove the external storage device from your system, you should install it on your main system drive so it’s always available.
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External hard drives are convenient and inexpensive devices you can use to expand the storage space on your computer. You can use an external hard drive on your work computer for all of the same tasks as the primary drive inside your computer such as storing applications and your work files. You can download and install software on your external drive instead of your primary computer drive when you run the application's installer. One thing to consider is that it may not be possible to move the external drive to another computer and then run the programs on that workstation. This may work on some small utilities, but for any application that requires a full installation to execute, you will need to execute the installer again on the new computer.
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Plug in your external drive to your computer, launch Windows File Explorer and note the drive letter of your newly connected drive.
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Save the application installer you are downloading from the Web to your external drive. Use the 'Save as' or 'Save link as' feature of your Web browser to navigate to the location on the external drive you wish to use as the save location.
3.Use Windows File Explorer to navigate to the location on your external hard drive that has the installation executable for the application you want to install. Double-click on the installer to begin the installation.
4.Navigate to the location on your external hard drive you wish to use as the install location when you are prompted to select the location during the install process. Press 'OK' to continue the installation.
5.Launch your application the same way as any other application using double-click or tap from Windows 8. Ensure your external hard drive is connected to your computer before launching the application.
Warning
- Always ensure your external hard drive is connected before you launch the application. The application icon will appear on Windows 8 even if the external drive is not connected, but the app will not run unless Windows can locate the files required to run the app.
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About the Author
John Granby began his writing career in 2000 as a founding member of a tech industry website targeted at WAP developers. He has provided in-depth coverage of the wireless industry, served as a speaker at several conferences and authored a book on Bluetooth. Granby earned a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Purdue University.
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Granby, John. 'Can I Download Software Onto My Computer Using an External Hard Drive?' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-download-software-onto-computer-using-external-hard-drive-68194.html. Accessed 28 January 2020.
Granby, John. (n.d.). Can I Download Software Onto My Computer Using an External Hard Drive? Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-download-software-onto-computer-using-external-hard-drive-68194.html
Granby, John. 'Can I Download Software Onto My Computer Using an External Hard Drive?' accessed January 28, 2020. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-download-software-onto-computer-using-external-hard-drive-68194.html
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