About ProgramData Folder:
The ProgramData setting specifies the path to the program data folder. Path_to_program_data_folder is a string with a maximum length of 259 characters. This string type does not support empty elements. Do not create an empty value for this setting.
The registry location of this setting is:
C:>reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList" /v ProgramData
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList
ProgramData REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%ProgramData
C:>
Redirecting ProgramData to other drives/folder:
Many times, when you have to setup an application that needs to use a different set of ProgramData files located in a different folder on the same or different drive. The option is to modify below environment variables for the user/machine context to have the application pickup the ProgramData files from your intended path.
Default values of ProgramData environment variables:
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:ProgramData
ProgramData=C:ProgramData
SystemDrive=C:
Values of ProgramData environment variables redirect to a custom path:
ALLUSERSPROFILE=H:ProgramData
ProgramData=H:ProgramData
SystemDrive=H:
To modify these environment variables you can use set command as shown below:
H:>set SystemDrive=H:
H:>set ProgramData=H:ProgramData
H:>set ALLUSERSPROFILE=H:ProgramData
H:>
Verifying the changes got successfully saved:
H:>set | findstr /C:H:
ALLUSERSPROFILE=H:ProgramData
ProgramData=H:ProgramData
SystemDrive=H:
H:>
