Tips and Tricks to Change Default Download Drive Quickly and Safely

By default, Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge download files to the Downloads folder located at %USERPROFILE%\Downloads. USERPROFILE is a variable that refers to the logged in user's profile directory on the Windows computer, e.g. the path may look like C:\Users\YourUserName\Downloads. However, you may change download folder location in your favorite browser or change the location of the Downloads folder in Windows.

You'll need to change Chrome's default download settings from within the browser. Or you can manually choose a download location for each separate download if you'd rather save them in different spots.

change default download drive

Your Windows 10 computer saves your downloaded files in a certain folder on your hard drive. If you want, you can change this default download location on your Windows 10 PC to any other folder you like.

Windows Registry Editor lets you tweak many settings on your machine. This includes changing the default downloads location on your Windows 10 PC. You only need to edit one value in the registry and your chosen folder will become the new default downloads location.

Normally your Downloads folder is on the C: drive, within your user folder. If you have a massive boot drive or regularly clean up old, unused downloads, it is probably perfectly fine there. If you hang on to everything you download, or just hate that file path, you might want to move your downloads folder to a different location.

It is a very convenient folder because you are not required to search through different folders in order to find a downloaded file. Downloads folder eradicates the need for your installed programs to set or make their own downloads folder. When it comes to the location of this folder in Windows, you can find it within the home directory located in the C drive of your PC.

Thus, you can locate the downloads folder by following the C:\Users\UserName\Downloads\ location. But you can always move Downloads folder to another drive Windows 11/10, or move Downloads from C drive to D drive. In this post, you will get to read about some easy ways on how to move Downloads folder to another drive Windows 10 and above. So, read it through the end.

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To move Downloads folder from C drive to D drive or any other partition with free PC data transfer software, you can use the large file/folder move feature. It is a hassle-free and quick way to change Downloads location. Not only this, but you can use EaseUS Todo PCTrans Free to restore and back up files, move programs or applications from one computer to other or from one drive to other.

With this, how to move downloads folder to another drive Windows 10 has become a simple task. You can use any of the ways mentioned above to move the downloads folder. However, we suggest you try your hands on EaseUS Todo PCTrans. Since it is a reliable and efficient tool, you won't face any difficulties while migrating the folder.

Help! My laptop is 5-year-old now and the C drive is low on space. I also notice that as long as I download things from the internet the downloaded files are automatically saved to the C drive. Is there any way to change default download location Windows 10? Appreciate!

Windows 11 assigns default save locations for files you download or new files you create on the system. Typically, the default save locations are on your local drive, which is typically called the C: drive. However, you might be running low on local disk space, forcing you to save files on a different drive.

Whatever the reason, you can change the default save location in Windows 11. This guide will walk you through changing the default save location for documents, music, apps, photos and videos, new movies and TV, offline maps, and even the Downloads folder itself.

Changing the location of your Downloads folder allows you to isolate files from your Windows installation after you download them. If you have limited local drive space for your Windows installation, you could move your Downloads folder to an external drive to make space.

Changing the default save location of files in Windows 11 allows you to manage your disk space better. Since most of your files will download via your browser, you may want to consider changing the Microsoft Edge download location next.

By default, Windows 10 stores all new apps on the system hard drive, usually drive C. If you prefer to use a different drive (say, if your system drive is getting low on disk space), you can follow these steps to specify a different app install default drive.

Once you complete the steps, the game files will be stored in the new drive location. If you selected the option to prompt you every time, you would be prompted where to hold the game before downloading.

I have both an ssd/hdd where the os is on the ssd. Can someone eli5 on how to change the default download location to my 2nd hdd? My hdd is a lot bigger then my ssd and only have room for important applications

hi i have two drives on my pc my 118gb ssd 'c drive'(used mainly for running the pc) and a 1.82Tb hdd 'd drive' used for storing all my pic vids game etc i installed itunes to my d drive but all content by default downloads to C:\Users\Owner\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media then either movies, music or tv programmes and i have to transfer it to the d drive( D:\Itunes\iTunes Media) then tv programmes/music/movie is there a way to change it so it automatically goes into the relevant folder on the d drive and i don't have to waste time copying from the c drive and the deleting it?

Whenever Steam wants to download a new game, it's going to download and install the game to a library in the same folder as the Steam installation. By default, this is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam.

ausing Firefox 8.0 with Windows 7 64-bit, I could not locate to area where I changethe default location within Internet Options. Used to work fine under Windows XP.Any idea where this default is set under this application?

"How to move Downloads folder to another drive in Windows 10?" You might have this question when you need to free up the system drive or you want to keep the downloaded files away from losing caused by system crash. By default, Windows allocates the Downloads folder to the system drive usually the C drive and enables users to save the downloaded items to it. However, it's available to relocate the Windows 10 Downloads folder and you can follow this post to move Downloads folder From C Drive to D drive or another drive in Windows 10.

Similarly, you can repeat the above steps to change the default download location for specific file types. Windows will automatically create new folders inside the selected drive as you make the changes. For instance, if you change the default download location for Microsoft Store apps, Windows will create the Program Files and Windows Apps folder in your new drive.

Although we only talked about Windows 11, you can employ the same steps on older versions of Windows to move the location of the Downloads folder. Alternatively, you can also change the default download location for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or any other browser you might be using by accessing its settings menu.

When you download or save a file on Windows 11 or Windows 10, the operating system wants to put your files in a default downloads folder or save location. This is suitable for many people, but for some, it can lead to the loss of vital space on their small OS drive. As a result, today we're going to show you how to change download location on Windows 11 / Windows 10, as well as how to change the Windows 10 / Windows 11 default save location.

As well as freeing up space on your c: drive, changing save and download location in Windows 11 / Windows 10 can speed up your workflow allow you to better take backups. You can save them to a separate virtual drive that you back up, for example, or to your OneDrive folder. Though you could do this previously by browsing, having Windows start you in the correct folder saves a lot of time.

It's not Windows itself that downloads files, but rather, it's applications like browsers or other network clients. If you're talking specifically about downloading files from the world wide web, your browser has a setting for the default download location. You can even set it to ask you each time where you want to put a file that you're about to download.

Programs like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome will use the path reported by the IKnownFolderManager to store downloads by default, though Google Chrome allows you to provide an override for this path (in the "Advanced settings" portion of its settings screen). If the path doesn't point to an existing folder, Microsoft Edge will simply complain, and Google Chrome will default to the "Downloads" folder in your Document folder.

This way you don't have to do any linking, registry editing or changing libary settings, windows takes care of it.As far as I tried it works with every so called 'library' (Documents, Music, Downloads, etc.) in your user folder, you can even move them to network drives.However you may need to click on the 'Download' shortcut in the little save dialog next time you download something as either the windows explorer or sometimes the application itself tends to remember the old save location, or pre-select the Desktop folder when the original folder doesn't exists anymore. After doing this once things should continue as before.

Steam may be facing stiff competition from Epic and Uplay, but it is still a solid place to go for games right now. As digital downloads have gradually taken over for game discs, Steam makes managing hundreds of games simple. But what happens when you fill up your storage? Can you change the game location in Steam? Can you move games to a different drive?

Many Steam users find that they run out of space on the currently used partition of existing storage or need to replace the drive due to failure or upgrade it to get more space. If Steam already exists and you already have games there, you can move them if you want. Here are some ways to change game download locations in Steam.