Some programs insist on installing to the C drive when they could just as easily run from another disk, and we still remember the nightmare of Steam downloading all its games into its own folder (luckily, today we can move them). The problem is that if you manually move a program's contents, you risk breaking its proper functioning, unless you use symbolic links in the process. The open source FreeMove software helps us do exactly that without consoles or strange commands.
You'd think storage space isn't a problem these days, but it only takes a computer with 16 or 32 gigabytes of solid-state storage to remember the importance of "counting bytes.". A very important Windows 10 feature that combats lack of space is CompactOS, whose usefulness was extended beyond OS files to compress games and programs.
Adding a hard drive to a computer is relatively simple in most cases, but reinstalling all your software on the new drive becomes tedious in record time. An alternative is to move folders and preserve the original path through a symbolic link, and that's what FreeMove is for.
Moving folders without losing symbolic links
This open source program takes up just 760 kilobytes and greatly simplifies our work by moving folders and automatically creating all the necessary symbolic links, when the normal procedure is to use the MkLink command in a console.
As always, the advice for any symbolic link is to focus on programs and ignore system folders. For example, if a game is installed inside "Program Files", you can use FreeMove and fix the situation in seconds, but don't try to move all of "Program Files" because Windows won't agree with that, and it will likely let you know.
FreeMove has no external dependencies beyond running as administrator, and any user can explore its code if they wish, although other projects seem to have violated the GPL 3.0 license by creating clones without publishing their changes (for example, Folder Move). Therefore, we recommend the original program.
