Not installing game in C:\ProgramFiles(x86) benefits ?

[sopmac45]

I have read a lot of people saying that is not recommended to install games in C:\ProgramFiles(x86) directory .... can you please tell me what are the benefits not doing so ?

 

According to Microsoft, the benefit of installing in that directory provides more security and better stability and if for any reason we do not install in that directory, we also must tweak some other things in Windows OS to avoid conflicts.

 

Again, can somebody explain to me why it is more beneficial to install my games in the C:\ directory and if so, is it OK to choose : C:\games\ ...directory or just C:\ ... plain ?

 

Thanks for your help .. :geek:

[M48A5]

When the game is installed in "Program Files", it will come under the control of Windows User Account Control. This prevents any outside (not Windows) program from making any changes to any program in Program Files.

 

What this means is that if you try to install a mod or other file that will change the game .exe or any other file in a game, the UAC will not allow this to happen.

 

You can make the installation in either C:\Games or just plain C:\.

[DrakeTheDragon]

More specifically, in most cases where trouble with installing mods was reported, the UAC made it so any files/folders put into program files, or similarly protected Windows folders, either by tools, like mod managers, or sometimes even manually by themselves, never got into those folders but were instead put into a "AppData/Local/VirtualStore" folder inside your User folder.

 

To make things worse, if you take a look into the game folder inside program files, the Windows Explorer for example will "lie" to you and falsely show the files actually being there, while in reality they are not. The game will not be fooled by this though and as such won't find the files or folders.

[LeddBate]

Also, for those of us using SSDs as their C: drive (and that should be most of us by now) there is another reason to put NMM and Skyrim (as well as Steam and just about any other program other than Windows) on a separate D: drive (or whatever you label it.) This is because SSDs (especially the older models) have a limited read/write life-span. Admittedly, this life-span is at least 5 years even for the early SSDs. (And later models will probably last you a decade or more with average use.) But why use up your primary drive's life-span with lots of programs that will be writing a LOT to the drive?

OTOH, if your other drive is a HD rather than a SSD, then your load times will suffer.

[sopmac45]

Also, for those of us using SSDs as their C: drive (and that should be most of us by now) there is another reason to put NMM and Skyrim (as well as Steam and just about any other program other than Windows) on a separate D: drive (or whatever you label it.) This is because SSDs (especially the older models) have a limited read/write life-span. Admittedly, this life-span is at least 5 years even for the early SSDs. (And later models will probably last you a decade or more with average use.) But why use up your primary drive's life-span with lots of programs that will be writing a LOT to the drive?

OTOH, if your other drive is a HD rather than a SSD, then your load times will suffer.

 

 

Thanks a lot to all of you, very well explained. :cool:

[hellfire28]

Also, for those of us using SSDs as their C: drive (and that should be most of us by now) there is another reason to put NMM and Skyrim (as well as Steam and just about any other program other than Windows) on a separate D: drive (or whatever you label it.) This is because SSDs (especially the older models) have a limited read/write life-span. Admittedly, this life-span is at least 5 years even for the early SSDs. (And later models will probably last you a decade or more with average use.) But why use up your primary drive's life-span with lots of programs that will be writing a LOT to the drive?

OTOH, if your other drive is a HD rather than a SSD, then your load times will suffer.

Do you think that's still true with a new M2 NVME SSD? Like an EVO 960? I ask because I'm assembling a new build now and was planning on using that as my Windows and Skyrim drive with my older SSDs being used for all other games.

[LeddBate]

Do you think that's still true with a new M2 NVME SSD? Like an EVO 960? I ask because I'm assembling a new build now and was planning on using that as my Windows and Skyrim drive with my older SSDs being used for all other games.

 

Newer SSDs have a LOT longer read/write lifespan. There's a lot of better educated people than I am arguing about that subject, but they seem to agree that newer models (any manufactured within the last 3 years) will probably last longer than your PC. So for those of you building rigs now, unless you're planning on buying a used SSD (and you never should IMO) then you don't have to worry about the lifespan. Instead, it all comes down to the size of the SSD. If you only have a 500GB SSD, then it's impossible to have your OS and a good sized Steam library on there. But if you have 1TB or more of room, then putting all your games and programs actually becomes the best thing to do as your load times will be soooo much better. This goes double for the newer M2 drives.

 

Hope that clarifies my thoughts.

 

Edited because I cannot spell even with an auto spell-checker.

Edited March 7, 2018 by LeddBate