So, you just want to keep a partition for Windows XP and another partition for all your applications that you install. You can change it in all the installations manually but changing the default location is a much better idea. And there are also some applications which don’t let you change the default path.
XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.
Run the Registry Editor (regedit)and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.
Note: This post was written originally for www.techmindz.com by me. You can find the post here