user defined installation of SDK 3.2

subra said:

How can I install SDK 3.2 and the manager as a user defined installation at a certain partition/directory on my disks?

This isn't something you can easily do right now. We have an feature request to allow this to be set.

subra said:

At present the installation is mixed up with my Windows directory.

Are you claiming that the SDK is installed into your windows directory (like C:\WINDOWS)? The SDK manager currently installs all of its files into your %APPDATA% folder (typically C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Garmin\ConnectIQ). It is pretty normal for applications to store data in %APPDATA% and not provide a way to specify an alternate location.

If you want an immediate solution, you should be able create a mount point for a volume to get what you want. You'd want to move one of the existing folders (say Garmin) temporarily, then create an empty folder with the original name and then mount the volume to this folder. Then move all of the files into the mounted drive.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/assign-a-mount-point-folder-path-to-a-drive

It isn't perfect, but it can work.

Thanks, Travis.

Travis.ConnectIQ said:

Are you claiming that the SDK is installed into your windows directory (like C:\WINDOWS)?

No sorry, I've meant the Windows disk, not the Windows directory itself. Yes, the SDK is installed in ...\Roaming\... But physically it's all stored at the Windows disk, which I don't like. If all third party SW were also installed on the Windows disk it becomes overgrown after some time. And then there is a serious problem. And for security and clarity reasons I strictly separate on different drives or disks: OS, third party SW, user data, and backup data.

Travis.ConnectIQ said:

It is pretty normal for applications to store data in %APPDATA% and not provide a way to specify an alternate location.

%APPDATA% is only the default installation path, but usually it can be adjusted by the user.

Thank you for the workaround using mount, I'll try this in the meantime.

subra said:

%APPDATA% is only the default installation path, but usually it can be adjusted by the user.

According to Microsoft %APPDATA% is specifies the path to a folder containing user-specific files that applications install. I don't know of any apps that allow you to manage that.

subra said:

And for security and clarity reasons I strictly separate on different drives or disks: OS, third party SW, user data, and backup data.

I used to do this. It became more trouble that it was worth to manage everything and to deal with issues like the one you're running into. Now I just buy an SSD and a big HDD and make sure my backup system does full disk images.

if you would want you can move the complete roaming folder to another location, right click on roaming, go to location tab and hit the move button. (take a backup of your system before you do this though so that you can go back in case something goes wrong during or after the move)

OK, the working methods changes with time and advanced technics. May be I'm old-school and it's time to adjust my privat installations. I'll think about this for my next devices. But for decades I haven't any trouble with the clean structure. Rather I get trouble if some third party SW accidentially overwrites OS specific lib's. And this is mainly what I want to prevent with separating, the access of possible malware to system important areas. I simply don't want the same experience as Garmin shortly ;-)

Thanks, peterdedecker

Very interesting and I haven't known that this so easy possible.

That would suck if you used Visual Studio Code. The %APPDATA%\Code folder on my machine is more than 12GB.