What impact does changing the Program Files directory have on installed apps in XP?

Hi.

I recently found a way to change the directory location of the Program Files folder (and also the Common Files folder) to a different place on the disk (or a different disk altogether), but from all of the articles I have found on the web that explain how to do this, they all seem to be saying how to change the directory BEFORE having installed any apps. I have around 2GB of applications, and I want to change the directory to a different disk. Will this change of location have a bad impact on my apps that I have already installed? (Obviously I am going to move these applications across to the new location).

My plan was to change the registry, restart my PC, then just drag and drop the apps into the new location on my D: drive. I need to do this because my C: drive doesn't have enough space left to defrag the paging file. Will this method work?



Thanks to everyone who offers an opinion in an advance.



Source: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1137/What impact does changing the Program Files directory have on installed apps in XP?
That tool only changes the default for installing an application. You would need to change all the other registry values for the programs you already have installed.



I would recommend uninstalling the old applications and reinstalling the applications after the change.