How to install Acrobat Reader in a different drive?

[marcusbale]

Hello!,

I was just wondering if anyone out there knows how can I install Acrobat Reader in a different drive than just directly in C:. It goes by default there whenever I try to download it from the site, and there's no option anywhere to choose where it will install the program. I need to change the drive cause my C: is too full and dont have much else to delete from it, but have plenty of space in D:. Is it possible somehow to install the program in a different drive than c:? Please help!

Thanks,

Marcus Bale

[pwillener · Accepted solution]

Download the full installer from http://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/

When you run the installer, use 'Change destination folder' at the bottom of the panel

If you already have Adobe Reader installed on the C: drive, you must uninstall it before installing a new version on a different location.

[Botttlecapp]

this doesnt work anymore.. no option to change destination folder.

[MichaelKazlow]

Some of the files installed by Reader will still be installed on the C drive. If your C drive is gettinig full, it is time to get a bigger C drive. Windows always wants space on its C drive.

[di_ny]

Yes, the full installation where you can choose where to install still installs the common files to the C drive. This is 1.75 GB. It does install the main program to the secondary drive, D drive, which saves 1.31 GB from being installed on the C drive. The files, folders and sizes of each are identical with both methods. 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat 1.75 GB

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe 1.31 GB

OR

D:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe 1.31 GB
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat 1.75 GB

I am looking for an alternative method and will come back if I find it. 

[kevin5FC7]

Hey there - 

 I'm curious if you were able to figure out a method to have acrobat installed on seperate physical disk or different partition other than C drive. Also, please let me know if you have figured out a way to download acrobat without downloading Creative Cloud. The Cloud platform has way too many processes that I dont feel like disabling.. 

[di_ny]

I have a different solution. Hopefully, you are running Windows because this is based on Windows 10.

It isn't a hard fix unless you have a lot of apps installed to your C drive but if you are running out of space on your C drive, I recommend that you unistall anything that you installed on the C drive anyway to reduce disk space and before you make the changes that I will tell you about. The best app to uninstall them is the free version of Revo Uninstaller. Just keep track of what you uninstalled so that you can reinstall them after you make D the install disk. 

Then, use the Registry Editor. In RegEdit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows\CurrentVersion. You will see several paths to C:\. Change them all to D:\.

Supposedly, you only need to change the ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir(x86) but I changed all of them to D because I also wanted my common files on D instead of C. This has not caused any issues with my laptop but I see that some apps still installed certain files to the C:\Program Files (x86) folder. The files in my C drive are now only small files though.

Again, if you don't do it correctly, anything that you already installed to the C drive will not have the correct path. You will need to uninstall these before changing the path then reinstall them after you have changed the path because they will then install to the D drive. You have to realize that anything that you already installed to C is looking for the C path. It is all or nothing. So, all apps need to be installed to the C drive or all apps need to be installed to the D drive with the exception of apps that ask you where you want them installed. You can't have some installed to one and some installed to the other. That just doesn't work. This does not apply to any preinstalled Windows apps. They are fine with you changing the path to D. The subprograms in the Windows OS program know to look for its apps in C.

Also, if you are running out of disk space, you can remove unneeded backups with Windows Disk Cleanup. You go to Windows Disk Cleanup/More Options/System Restore and Shadow Copies/Cleanup. It only saves the most recent restore point. If your computer is running well and you are certain that you will not need older backups, you can save a lot of disk space by doing this. I would not do this if you have any glitches in the operation of your computer because you might need to restore from older backups.

I also advocate the use of other free disk cleanup apps but you have to be careful because some will remove some of your desktop icons if you don't set them correctly. You can add the icons back through the properties function of the app. The only one that I can think of offhand is Microsoft Edge. The icon hides in "C:\Users\"Your User Name"\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Edge Profile.ico" You just create a desktop shortcut after you are done with your disk cleanups then go into properties, choose change icon then go to where the icon is and click it. Windows Disk Cleanup cleans very little. The most I have ever had it remove is a little over 80 MB. When you need Gigs removed, you need to use the other disk cleaners. The good free ones are Advanced SystemCare, Eusing Cleaner, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, Glary Disk Cleaner, Glary Tracks Eraser, Wise Disk Cleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner, and PrivaZer. When you use all of these they will remove many GBs of unneeded junk files. They will not hurt anything except possibly removing a couple of desktop icons. There is one other exception. They will remove your browser passwords and your auto form fills unless you tell them not to. I don't advocate having passwords in your browser anyway for security reasons. I had my Google passwords stolen in the past. Then, hackers used my passwords to take money out of a bank account and verify that I was allowing it through use of my email. I did get the money back but I would never store my passwords in Chrome. Also, if you want a copy of all of your Chrome passwords, you can go to  https://passwords.google.com/ and download all of your passwords to store offline. You can also reinstall them. I have a text document list of passwords that I named something unrelated to passwords. I also made html files of categories of passwords that I can click if you know how to write html. 

I don't know your level of computer knowledge. So, I caution you to only go as far as you are comfortable and certain that you will not hurt your OS. 

Good luck!

[kevin5FC7]

I can't thank you enough for confirming my hypothesis... 

I'm going to try executing this in registry editor this evening and will let you know how it goes/ if I think of a way to ensure all program files (X86, X64, & X32) are installed/stored elsewhere, I'll be sure to include that in my update. 

Thanks again for the follow-up to my questions. Will update in eight or so hours. 

[di_ny]

Sounds like fun to me but I'm a geek. Let me know how it goes. If you have any problems, I'm here for you.

[di_ny]

It will not let me edit my post. You can download the Adobe reader here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Just ensure that you download Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and not Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. The reader by itself does a lot. The Pro does more but costs money. You don't need to subscribe to Adobe Cloud to use the reader. 

[mbsc]

It worked for me.