How to move %ProgramData% and all %UserProfile% to another drive on an already installed Windows 7?

Question

Windows

Colleagues, such a question: by default, the above folders in Windows 7 are located in c:\ProgramData and c:\Users. I somehow got used to having them on another drive (I always have two hard drives installed) - it’s more convenient for me.

I know how to specify the physical location of these folders when installing Windows, before entering the username (via sysprep and a simple unattend xml file). But Windows is already installed.

I can also link via mklink /J, but I really don't like the visual presence of these folders in two places - sloppy somehow.

Is there any documented way or tool to move these two folders to another location without reinstalling Windows? I can, of course, run through the registry, starting from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and replace c:\Users with d:\Users everywhere, but somehow this path does not seem right to me.

Thanks in advance for constructive suggestions.

Answer 1

Regarding user profiles:
1. joshmouch.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/change-user-profile-folder-location-in-vista/ - undocumented method
2. About the impossibility of doing this by standard means here:
blogs.msdn .com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2008/12/10/9188555.aspx
and here: blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2011/10/06/10220920.aspx (I think the info in this link applies to ProgramData
as I understood from the comments there, you can solve the issue using junctions: support.microsoft.com/?kbid=205524

Answer 2

It is possible during installation:
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_...
Tested by myself.