Could be fatal for commercial software that has been bought as it will stop working altogether or revert back to a trial version that is most likely expired. You could uninstall and reinstall the software program. Could be trouble for users who do not have the serial number at hand anymore if the software is commercial. Could also be problematic because of custom settings that will most likely be gone unless they are stored globally.

A quick search on the Internet revealed no free software programs that aid the user in the process. The most popular commercial software program seems to be Application Mover by Funduc which costs $15 for a single user license. We like free here at Ghacks which is why the following way to move applications from one location to another should work as well for you.

Symbolic links come to the rescue. They can be used to point from the original folder to a new folder. Windows will recognize this as one folder in the original location although the files are located on another drive. To move c:\program1 to d:\program1 one would move the contents of c:\program1 to the d drive and create a symbolic link in c:\program1 pointing to the new location.

The process would therefor involve the following steps:

• Move (or copy) the files on c:\program1 to d:\program1
• Create a symbolic link from c:\program1 to d:\program1

There are several programs that can be used to create symbolic links, for example Junction by Sysinternals or SHJunction by Bitsum. The first program is command line driven while the second comes with a graphical user interface.

There is also a Windows Shell Extension for those who prefer to create the symbolic links in Windows Explorer.

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A practical example would be to store files and directories in a different location than they have to reside in. This could be the Firefox profile directory, a Skype directory or the Windows Documents and settings folder. You basically tell Windows to look into the original folder but also in the linked folder for files.

NTFS Link offers three ways of creating hard links and junctions. The first and probably easiest way is by dragging and dropping a file or folder with the right mouse button to another location. The others are by making use of the New parameter in the right-click menu in Windows Explorer while the last works by right-clicking on an empty folder only.

The drag and drop function proves to be really useful and an uncomplicated way of creating hard links and junctions. It should however be noted that NTFS Links works best when run in pre-Vista operating systems as Windows Vista comes with its own possibilities to create symbolic links.

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