What If You Delete the "Program Files" Folder in Windows?

Would deleting Program Files DESTROY your computer?
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▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:37 - What's Actually In Those Folders?
3:17 - Deleting Program Files
4:52 - Deleting Program Files (x86)
6:02 - Deleting ProgramData
7:01 - Some Stuff is Already Broken
7:32 - Deleting More That Remains
8:47 - Windows is Officially Broken
10:52 - Can It Be Fixed?
12:20 - Trying One Last Thing
13:17 - Discussion & Thoughts
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[@CGKayy]

'We've literally broken Windows so bad that it downgraded itself to a previous version.' This is why i love this channel

[@liminalityy_]

​@Alpaca Fluffy windows 10 let's you acces windows XP stuff (every windows version is built ontop of each other) so there is a chance you can break 10 or 11 so hard that it just falls back to XP

[@Qbix1234official]

@@liminalityy_ But you can't access Windows XP tour unless you have it downloaded

[@suspended67Animations]

me too. I love breaking things but my VM is not set up yet so I can not do it myself.

[@arthurA161]

Windows decided to downgrade lol. Imagine if downgraded down and down all the way to like Windows 3.02

[@Anewedition2024]

thanks for spoiling

[@hwdrlkh]

As someone who likes captions on videos, I really appreciate that you made proper captions for the video, really makes it easier to watch. Especially in loud environments or on places I'd rather not have my phone making noise. Thank you ThioJoe!

[@ThioJoe]

Yep I do them for all my videos these days, but I figured I’d add a thing so people know

[@yousefslimani99]

I agree!

[@Galaxy.Windows]

@@ThioJoe You can bring back the Windows 10 Start on Windows 11 via the regestry

[@Galaxy.Windows]

/HKEY-CurentUser/software/Microsoft/Windows/CurentVersion/explorer/Advaced/ create a New DWORD Valiue and Named Start_ShowClassicMode then set the valiue to 1 then Restart Explorer (Windows 11 Only)

[@userwin64]

@@Galaxy.Windows that wouldn't work, it has been patched in build 22000.65

[@_SJ]

I need to wake up at 5 a.m., but a ThioJoe video is more important.

[@breadmachine_official]

It's 5pm, bro (GMT +1)

[@_SJ]

@@breadmachine_official 12:15 a.m., Manila Time

[@xp8969]

@@_SJ sounds like a thrilla in Manilla

[@Guru_1092]

@@_SJ Envelopes aren't a place silly.

[@markusTegelane]

time zones are fun

[@O_Kikiwi]

The part where Windows starts reverting itself up to 10 is the funniest part of it all 🤣🤣

[@martinxx2621]

Yeah, confirms that windows 11 is just a worse windows 10

[@Mario583a]

Windows, too, needs a failsafe.

[@NazmusLabs]

@@martinxx2621 Windows 10 is just Windows 7. Windows 7 is XP. Your point? Microsoft did not build a version of operating system from scratch since 1992.

[@martinxx2621]

@@NazmusLabs True, but 11 is literally just rekinned windows 10 with some new feature sprinkled in.

[@NazmusLabs]

@@martinxx2621 no there are major changes in the back end and in a lot of features. my virtual desktops and programs a preserved when I restart the computer for example. The ability to run, Linux GUI apps, android apps. they’re a big improvements on how DirectX works. There’s a massive upgrade on hand writing and dictation which is useful for touch computers or when you need to dictate text. A lot of legacy 90s UI have been upgrade to windows 11 UI. Aero glass-like transparency in the title bar has been added back. There are a bunch more features that I often use and realized doesn’t exist in windows 10 when I go back to it

[@freezinfire]

Fun fact, when I first got my laptop from hp retailer it said that it came pre installed with windows 11, but it was exactly like how you showed windows 10 with the windows 10 start and explorer. After I updated it went back to normal but it was a wild out of the box experience for me, because the setup process was exactly like windows 11 but with broken stuff lying around.

[@martinxx2621]

This is why you should always clean install windows when you buy a new computer. OEMs load them with all sorts of bullshit

[@DoubsGaming]

@@martinxx2621 pretty true that.

[@Sportathome_15]

wtf i thought it was only me im using now the insider program but it was like win10 i was scared

[@devsda1]

You probably got a pre release version out of the box

[@Galaxy.Windows]

@@devsda1 No

[@codrutx]

You can also get the Windows 10 Explorer in Windows 11 by opening the control panel and then navigating to a folder from there

[@hyphennate]

Literally at work setting up a Win11 laptop for someone, and I had to try it. That's hilarious.

[@beluga2155]

But of course, the windows 10 ribbon UI is very confusing. Glad win 11 fixed it

[@exposed231]

Control panel will be gone in the future. I have a cousin working in Micorosoft s***t department. He said to me before about "modern task manager". "Disk clean up" will be replace by "storage sense" , " tab in file explorer", "dark mode button", "screen recording" and Windows 12 is on works.

[@codrutx]

@@exposed231 rip control.exe, soon gone but never forgotten :(

[@raidev_]

@@exposed231 ive been hearing this for a decade now

[@michaelchen2821]

TaskManager was built to run, even if the windows Shell (root process) is not running. It's a fail-safe. That's why it always starts.

[@akurasubject9617]

task manager mvp

[@deweywsu]

I thought this was going to be cheesy "look how messed up it is" type of comedy video when I saw the title, but it turned out to be really interesting and way more in-depth than I expected. I liked the step by step explanation of the problem solving to try to correct the errors seen. Nice video!

[@sami.9792]

you must be new here...

[@anon_y_mousse]

In a way, it's kind of cool that Windows tries to protect itself so the user doesn't just bork their system. On Linux, a user with sudo permissions is really dangerous because they can just rm -rf / and bork the system with ease. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that on Linux you're free to do with your system as you please, but I feel like some more protection against malicious users and programs *by default* would be nice.

[@DragoniteSpam]

It's especially good to be able to prevent kids who don't know what they're doing (and other categories of users who don't know what they're doing, like old people) from wrecking everything in one click. When I was a kid I totally would have tried this just to see what happened if the system allowed me. Of course, now as an adult I know of even better ways to screw up the system.

[@michaelchen2821]

I mean, you can program a failsafe on Linux to catch the sudo'ed command and stop it. There are instructions.

[@bernardonegri5416]

If I remember correctly, the "TrustedInstaller" thing is so app installers won't try to change other apps and make those other apps misbehave. It's a way to avoid DLL hell.

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@michaelchen2821 It's even easier to just disable sudo, or only grant very trusted users access. But I'm referring to default behavior on a fresh install, as well as the possibility that you have an inexperienced user who doesn't know what they're doing. If Linux ever gets as popular as Windows, we'll see a lot of prank instructions that include `sudo rm -rf /`.

[@MarasiTemple]

@@michaelchen2821 nice profile picture

[@raphaelmateusdasneves772]

Also 2, Windows 11 is not just built on 10, it is Windows 10 with a new GUI. Or technically they all are Windows NT 4.0 from 1996. They expanded on features and made new GUIs but in the kernel, you'll find DOS era code and what was built upon. They started from scratch for NT but still used their old code to look up stuff, repeating some past mistakes. Most of the code is not capable of using modern CPU and language features. Also a lot of applications are the exact same as in previous versions, compiled again. So you basically just deleted one layer of skins on the explorer. That's also the reason you can open the settings you know from Windows XP.

[@Xnoob545]

There's windows 3.1 explorer file selection stuff you can acess in windows 10 (maybe 11 too)

[@themrunknown850]

You could mention the explorer as shell for less confusion

[@mauricejanssen5926]

... and i thought that finally made an effort to make a decent OS (:yes sarcasm) D; Hilarious, as expected.

[@pacomatic9833]

Windows is a basic operating system, with a billion layers haphazardly stacked on top of each other. Hence the bloat. The worst part is that they've gone so far that they can't really do anything about the bloat unless they rebuild everything from the ground up.

[@pacomatic9833]

Windows is a basic operating system, with a billion layers haphazardly stacked on top of each other. Hence the bloat. The worst part is that they've gone so far that they can't really do anything about the bloat unless they rebuild the whole thing from the ground up.

[@413X-Records]

Good thing you didn’t broke it further otherwise it would have reverted back to Windows XP 😂

[@Alfred44819]

Impossible

[@osinternals]

@@Alfred44819 There still is some remnants of Windows XP in Windows 11

[@technicalmaster-mind]

@@osinternals ive spotted even DOS era code (which isnt even executable on our modern modems used in our machines)

[@EarthrealmWarrior]

Something i would never mess with but its definitely interesting to watch windows just break like that

[@krisr3868]

Windows is more robust than I would have thought. And I also learned about some tools that I really should have known about previously. Have a well-earned like

[@cyclommatus11]

He deleted Internet Explorer...

[@alyss6781]

idk why i thought windows 11 was entirely separate from windows 10, i was genuinely surprised when it actually reverted back to the windows 10 taskbar and explorer, it's interesting to me how all windows versions are just build upon older versions and not entirely new

[@joaquingomezullrich878]

This is a good example of how windows 11 has UWP apps heavily integrated in the system. Even the right click menu is actually an app, so thats why you couldnt even right click. The real apps (like win10 explorer, taskmngr, notepad, etc) are either in System32 or elsewhere in the Windosws folder (as it should be, as they are actually part of the OS) and they seem to be set as some kind of fallback if the UWP ones fail, so thats why it started reverting.

[@iron_pickaxe]

Try deleting all environment variables. I did that recently without thinking about it too much, made the computer unusable and took me a while to fix haha

[@yusinwu]

Bro, why?

[@svenjansen635]

Probably shouldn't have deleted PATH

[@Daud4you]

What did you do to make it working againn cause I have the same issue

[@Submersed24]

haha I made a folder hidden and it caused the path to crash then I accidentally made my common directory hidden thinking it would show hidden files when it really just hid literally all of my files. I thought it wiped everything

[@timothystevenhoward]

Just reminds me of how often we had to reinstall windows back in the day. You get to a point where you knew reformatting was the easy way out.

[@lordpuff]

I think you could do a video combining everything you have done so far, and delete as many files from windows as possible without it completely crashing. Would be fun to see what would happen then

[@billloomis3907]

Great video, Never thought of trying this. Thanks

[@erik-html]

Windows: you know what? screw you. *downgrades your virtual machine*

[@wisemysticaltree2866]

upgrades*

[@mythicalgaming111]

YESS MORE OF THESE WHAT ID YOU DELETE STUFF, been watching you for 3 years

[@shidosensei.]

I like how Windows just started freaking out with the cursors like you know it really gave up, poor Virtual Machine

[@miro007ist]

Thio Joe your vids are always so interesting!

[@2KTension]

I find these videos more satisfying to watch more than other tech vids

[@muriuwangai3617]

Very very interesting. I enjoyed every bit of it

[@vedanshchn]

I tried deleting apps this way but I guess due to registeries, the apps still showed up in the Programs and features panel :/

[@dunste123]

Thanks for the great tutorial on how to get the old windows 10 explorer back on windows 11 :)

[@virusrocker]

lol

[@raphaelmateusdasneves772]

Also, the SearchEngine indexes all files one the system which are not yet indexed, so if you delete the database (.db duh) it has more to index and creates its folders again. Killing the windows search (or uninstalling the system feature) will remove the folder forever.

[@allstars9915]

There is like already so much information i got from this video and now i am curious to try this on my VM as well

[@tech.forward707]

You are the record holder of computers! You have most important videos in the world.

[@CattopyTheWeb]

Oh yeah! A what if video! Love them

[@acze-]

I think next video might be deleting windows files. Always loved your presentation and you eyes :)😁

[@ninjakoksu]

kinda curious, what would the auto repair/advanced boot up options say about all this? would it find and fix some stuff? would it turn windows 11 to windows 10 even more? would it crash? is safe mode still an option? I feel like there is more to it

[@z69b]

i messed with just windowsapps a while ago and had the issues he had at the very beginning of the video. i couldn’t get a bunch of apps open, and no fixes were helping, so i decided to factory reset. factory reset still didn’t fix it, i had to do a clean install from a usb to finally fix it all. so it is unlikely that anything that is done within the operating system would actually help. this was all on windows 10, but i don’t think anything really would have changed in 11.

[@addas4]

You can do an in-place upgrade and that will probably fix the system without wiping data (But you probably deleted the progams anyway which cannot be restored but at least you can restore the system to stable state again)

[@One.Zero.One101]

Such a fun experiment!

[@isoceptic]

I did not expect the ending

[@AndersHass]

It would be interesting what would happen in older Windows versions

[@GYTCommnts]

Love this series of messing with Windows in VM! You could try to boot from a Linux Live ISO in the VM and delete things from the outside if the virtual disk and Windows installation it's not encrypted. You could try a System snapshot in Windows as a final recovery to see if it can recover all the way in such destruction, or attempt recovery methods that doesn't imply full reinstall to see to what extent you can make Windows somewhat functional again without reinstalling. In the System 32 deletion one you tried some of the recovery options in Windows, you could try some of the "outside" Windows ones. Like the tools you recommend to have in pendrives in other videos, or for example, copying from the outside from a fresh install (from other VM maybe) the folders missing to see if that improves something. Very cool series!

[@danytoob]

Reverting to W10 was hilarious...loved it. THX!

[@bubbajames2157]

Windows 11: Dad! Help! This guy is beating the hell out of me! Windows 10: I'm coming, son!

[@Vasco2020E]

I actually messed with the Program Data folder because of the start menu. That start menu folder some folders that correspond to folders that are visibble to everyone in the start menu So what i did was a folder called Customization for customization programs like rainmeter and wallpaper engine And Maintenece for maintenece programs All those are shortcuts that everyone will be able to see in the start menu There is also something like this for the desktop You can open C:\Users\Public\Desktop drop files in there and then there will be a icon on your desktop (and everyone elses on your pc) (the icon is like the file or shorcut you put in there) And these dont count as part of your desktop but still show up innit so you can have a lot of shortcuts on your desktop and have a clean desktop folder in the explorer (to make it easier to upload stuff from the desktop if you are not a drag and drop person)

[@ButterFromDiscord]

In windows 11, the secure whatever thingy that’s require is what prevents the access and deletion of these In such a way (I think). It literally forces the CPU to keep you out of them.

[@tbg07]

cpu is too much of a low level for managing file permitions. I'd think it's slightly above the kernel.

[@omerakgoz34]

You can just use 7zip to access most of the protected system folders. Ofc as running as admin. And IObit Unlocker to delete files/folders that has running process.

[@KeinNiemand]

What happens if you back up the folders before deleting them and just copy them back? would that be enough to fix it?

[@paveldobcz23]

Maybe you could try exporting the whole registry to a .reg file, use some find and replace tool with regex to replace all string values to empty, all dword/qword values to 0 etc... and see what happens, tho it sounds a little too extreme so you could try to do just the user ones first and then move on to the other parts of registry but it sounds like a fun way to nuke Windows.

[@marcels.7074]

FlyTech did a video on this

[@JohnPaulBuce]

thanks for showing the app to delete as a trusted installer

[@TheLordOmega777]

I love the what if and then you delete something in pc so we don't do the same error you such a good dude btw in the trusted installer (in my vm) I simply made me the owner of the entire c drive so I can delete everything in it but not running apps

[@alphaknight1181]

The windows apps folder is actually for Microsoft store apps

[@NazmusLabs]

that’s correct May Allah (S.W.T.) guide you and bestow upon you His Blessings; Ameen.

[@rositatimmermans220]

This is what's it really got me with furious sign with someone that all Ready has dam signature,

[@SilverStudiosLLC]

The fact that Windows 11 lit went to 10 is just crazy. I always thought the main Windows files were in the "Windows" folders

[@Sifplex]

on the bios advanced restart firmware options, it recognized my Win11 as Win10, so now it makes more sense.

[@Kraxlii]

This is so cool! I can be old when im young.

[@raphaelmateusdasneves772]

Oh yeah and A your right click freezes due to registry keys pointing to applications which do not exist anymore (for example run defender scan) since you didn't delete the keys, it loops indefinitely between follow link -> failed -> follow link ... and B, sfc is 100 percent correct. There are no corrupted files, that tool is not a backup suite (Windows restore points are). Most of what you deleted, you could have uninstalled anyways. So restoring that stuff would be pretty bad actually. But your background came back - generated by the same tool which says "configuring windows, this may take a couple of minutes" when you first log into a fresh windows. It does not remember you already went through that process because you deleted program data, but it doesn't have much to do because a lot of what is does is written to C:\Windows\...

[@MicrogamerCz]

1:40 - most of them ARE apps, not just preinstalled, but most installed apps from MS Store or sideloaded UWP / Windows App SDK apps or APPX/MSIX packaged apps and they do have manifests (and manifests or other assets in other, similarly named, folders) look at the size of that folder in WizTree or WinDirStat, it most likely takes around 1GB for clean install of Windows, that would be too much for just manifests

[@TweekLudwig]

Little fun fact, you can actually make W11’s taskbar look like W10 (not surprising though again, considering it’s built off 10) in settings to put the taskbar to the left, rather than the center. Or you can delete all those files (pls no) lol

[@SluggishRain]

The settings option just centers the Windows 11 taskbar on the left of the screen, but there is a registry tweak that completely reverts the taskbar back to the one from Windows 10. The start menu is broken and doesn’t open when you do that, though.

[@denisdelete263]

I just want to be able to move it to the side or top of my screen again.

[@roobscoob47]

Thanks, TJ~

[@ElementalDomino2007]

Well, looks like we discovered Windows 10.5

[@windowsbuilderthegreat3121]

Some parts of windows 11 still identifies as windows 10. For example when I try to access group policy in the home version of windows 11, it said that group policy was not supported by this version of windows 10, even though it is windows 11

[@saudistic]

yes, cause the NT version is the same as windows 10

[@itskdog]

@@saudistic which is so weird. Vista through 8.1 were all NT 6.x, they jumped to 10.x for Windows 10 for consistency, then just outright kept the NT version number as 10.x, just with a bigger build number, when they moved to Win11.

[@_SJ]

The funniest part is when it started to look like Windows 10

[@Mario583a]

Windows, too, needs a failsafe.

[@NazmusLabs]

I once messed with the video drivers on a windows XP virtual machine and it started to look like windows 98 including the icons.

[@_SJ]

@@NazmusLabs 😂

[@d-tech3190]

Program Files\WindowsApps is where apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store usually go.

[@gdmathguy]

Also, you can likely fix it easily by manually installing a browser, getting some of those deleted program files and putting them back in but idk

[@TOPseal69]

Me when I am out of storage

[@MikesComputerTips]

Good channel Theo

[@MZZenyl]

Mildly interesting: The old simplified aero theme from Windows Vista/7 can still be seen on Win11 in a few different spots before the modern skin gets applied.

[@QuantumScratcher]

Works on my computer running Windows 10, for a split-second I can sometimes see Aero Basic when exiting fullscreen mode on KZbin

[@MZZenyl]

@@QuantumScratcher Yup, you can do something similar by launching conhost (the "old" console host application), and holding down [Alt]+[Enter]. This makes it rapidly toggle fullscreen mode, allowing you to quickly see the old simplified aero theme. Still works on Win11 22H2.

[@Devious_Reviews]

'...in use." messages are among the most irksome things I can encounter when doing tasks (personal or professional) on a computer. It's almost exclusive to removable drives. Even when everything's closed as one does before powering down, I'll attempt to 'properly' eject external storage drives but will get errors claiming they're being used even after some time's passed since files were accessed on them. So naturally I do the "eh, f*ck it" thing we all do and yank those drives out. Hey, I was patient and gave it a warning. (Yoink!)

[@Kippykip]

On the windows 11 prototype, someone on 4chan found out by uninstalling edge forcibly it would revert explorer and the taskbar to the Windows 10 ones. I have the thread archived somewhere on my hard drive.

[@SW73_stopmawxp]

Uninstalling only the browser part does not do that.

[@usrbinluna]

W11 seems to "revert" to the Windows 10 look because you removed the WindowsApps folders, which contain all UWP apps in the system. W11 Explorer, Paint, Notepad, Terminal, Taskmgr etc are all UWP

[@Lavinjo7]

Good video man

[@somethingcoolgoeshere]

In the windows 7 days there was this trick on the login screen where you could replace the accessibility menu with a cmd prompt running as SYSTEM and bypass the password entirely. I want to know if this still works in windows 10 you can find videos on how its done.

[@itskdog]

It does. Microsoft haven't patched it because if someone's got physical access to your machine, you're pwned anyway.

[@thatonefoxxy]

What if you update windows to a next feature update in this state?

[@jeskoog]

Thank you ThioJoe cuz I have spent many hours recovering from my intense curiosity of, "I wonder if". Now, I can let you just do it. It is fun when you're changing computers though and got all of your data off:-)

[@dm12e]

from my knowledge the "Windowsapp" folder is the directory for .appx, and .msixbundle (Microsoft store) apps, you can even use the "wsappbak" tool to repackage apps, using windows sandbox helps, and if the app doesn't have a trial version on the store page you can crack paid apps by downloading and installing from the store.rg-adguard and repackging from the tool

[@dm12e]

Deleting that folder leads to some windows apps like the clock and the terminal not functioning although I might be wrong here

[@arnavrajsingh44]

the comments section is witty af, not more than you Joe. Good video as always !

[@roberthunter6927]

Changing the file extensions and/or filenames can be fun. Of course files with high privileges will not let you do it until your escalate your own privileges.

[@mathesonstep]

You should have tried an in place upgrade. It can solve almost any Windows install related issue

[@RameshwarParjapatip]

Tnx sir.

[@midnight.69]

The funny thing is that I actually almost deleted the Program Files but due to my gamer reaction time I cancelled it before it could do any damage.

[@raphaelaziel248]

Fake

[@midnight.69]

@@raphaelaziel248 How is it fake?

[@midnight.69]

@@raphaelaziel248 Where's your proof

[@raphaelaziel248]

No more delete Program Files forever@@midnight.69

[@Digit4lSpace]

​@@midnight.69not faek

[@ShivamJoshi25]

People: We will use Windows 11 instead of Windows 10 Microsoft: Fine I'll do it myself

[@MiniRockerz4ever]

Try unlocker for deleting things. I often install to my own location, but some software doesn't allow changing install location.

[@snowcatman]

Do a video of uninstalling and then deleting if needed, I wounder how far you would get to keep the system and yet how much of the integrated system can be cleared before its no longer useable.

[@PavelKrejci-ik5uv]

icacls /reset only sets the same permissions as parent folder. The windows folders trees have much more complex permissions. You need to restore the delicate structure of permissions by using icacls /restore from backup created on working installation of the same windows build. In-place upgrade/reinstall is the best way to fix this mess. I would welcome video on how to intentionally switch to Windows 10 file explorer in Windows 11.

[@benjidoerr]

If something says it is in use, the easiest way to circumvent that is to drag it into the recycle bin and empty the recycle bin

[@animatorskiold]

Better video title: how to make your windows 11 install look like windows 10 with big risk of bricking your pc

[@AnykeyNomad]

11:56 - when it got stuck like this, just press Enter, or even Spacebar (if I remember correctly). And it'll continue.

[@User-404]

I won't lie This was funny and satisfying watching

[@Pole-Star-Legend]

Sir I have a question, what happens when we delete measured boot folder in C:\Windows\logs? Cause when I deleted it on my main PC without thinking about it, some weird things started happening, like my battery started lasting for a very short duration, even though running on low power mode and battery saver turned on as well!

[@abbarue]

Is it possible to combine all the "Program Files" stored on 2 HD's onto only 1 drive and have them still work without having to reinstall those files>

[@antonyc.7173]

I'd like to see you delete everything you can find on Windows related to the Recycle Bin.

[@ktheveg]

What if you tried -Using system reset -Restore point? -Running DISM/SFC in a USB/disc install menu (targeting the internal drive)?

[@densetzu]

If you want to prevent your software getting deleted and killing your computer, don't let your cat sleep on your laptop.

[@gdmathguy]

hey thio, you may already know this, but if you have problems with folders being constantly recreated, try naming a file that name instead of a folder

[@-geefius-5353]

What happens if you change the location of the folder? I.e if you copy them to your D: drive and then delete it from your C: drive?

[@Freddie_06]

What about system restore points to fix this? This may sound stupid, but I do not really know what they are.

[@cougar-town]

A system repair usually fixes it if done right. If that does not fix it, a recovery disk or installation media is have to be used.

[@AydenC77]

You should’ve tried the recovery tools in safe start up menu

[@Snivine]

WindowsApps does include installed applications, it has all of the appx/UWP apps

[@Apotheon777]

Next video make the whole C drive case sensitive. I was too lazy to type and made the whole Users folder case sensitive and it messed things up, thankfully it was an easy fix.

[@JohnnyPlayz5997]

I have an idea. Install a new copy of windows 11 and copy all of the program files to a USB. then boot into a windows installer, run a notepad with cmd, goto open file to open a file explorer, and copy the program files from the USB to the windows installation. then boot it back up with the files to see if it fixed

[@alfamari7675]

A more practical what if scenario, is what if you move the program files folders to a different drive and symlink to them from the original drive. There doesn't seem to be a way to change the default installation directory for everything to read and use and everything wants to put itself on your system drive when you obviously want them on your larger data drive. So you have to change the path for every program every time. Instead of defaulting to a specified location. 🙁