Apparently, many novice users are faced with the fact that the Internet often has to download quite large amounts of information and save them for future use on a hard drive or removable media. However, in all recent versions of Windows, even when using web browsers, neither the system nor the browser itself usually asks for confirmation to indicate the folder in which to place the downloaded materials. How to change the location of saving downloaded files by the simplest methods will be discussed later. We also briefly dwell on some specific solutions applicable for fine-tuning the Windows OS itself, which will help to better understand the mechanisms of their functioning.
The standard file upload location on recent Windows systems
Probably, the newcomers noticed that after the first installation of the seventh version of Windows and above, several folders for quick access to a certain type of content appear in the usual "Explorer". One of the directories is the Downloads folder, or Downloads. It is in it that, by default, everything that users try to save on the computer in the process of downloading files is downloaded.
It is obvious that such a directory was created for a reason, and for the convenience of finding downloaded content, this does not suit many. In such a situation, some try to change the main download directory, but not everyone knows how to change the location for saving downloaded files. Meanwhile, there is nothing particularly complicated here. And to begin with, we’ll give you some simple options.
How to change the save location of downloaded files for web browsers?
Despite the fact that Internet browsers installed in Windows have a lot of their own settings, in any case they obey only the directives that the operating system sets for them. Actually, the folder for saving downloaded files after installing browsers does not change. How to change the save location of downloaded files using standard tools for this? In this case, there is no need to turn to OS tools.
In any browser, you just need to go into the settings and find the settings item for the folders for downloading (downloads). A standard directory will be listed there. Using the browse button, simply select the desired directory, and then save the changes. If you use several browsers at the same time, such actions will need to be performed for each of them. In addition, for example, in the same "Opera" for setting, you can activate the point of issuing a request before saving. In this case, the browser will not download Internet content to the specified directory, but will provide you with the right to choose yourself.
How do I change where new content is saved in boot applications?
As for the commonly used specialized downloaders, it is best to cite the popular torrent application uTorrent as an example. How to change the location of downloaded files in this program? Actions from what has been described for browsers are not particularly different.
However, the "trick" of the application is that it is in this utility that you can specify several folders in which different content will be placed. So, you can select a separate directory for saving the torrent files themselves (objects with the .torrent extension), and also specify the main directory for downloading the contents of the torrent distribution after the file is launched. In the latest versions of this application, another feature is available. The fact is that the user by default needs to confirm the loading of the selected elements that are contained in the distribution.
On the one hand, in the upper field you can change the main folder, on the other hand, check the box for creating a subfolder so that downloaded files are not scattered in the main directory, but are combined in one directory. You can also change the name of the directory or leave the automatically assigned name.
Changing paths in variable environments
If you have questions about how to change the location for saving applications, you can, of course, use the above methods, however, you can’t manually launch their main executable files, for example, through the command console or the Run menu (it never happens may be needed). The problem here is that the operating system searches for the path itself and distributes executable files in strictly defined places (usually this is either the root folder of the system or the System32 directory).
To configure the launch of an application from the console, through the system properties you need to go to additional parameters, click the button for setting environment variables and change the path specified there to the folder containing the desired applet. Please note that you should specify only the folder with the file, and not the absolute path to it. You can also change the download location of temporary files, but doing such things just for fun is not recommended. Such actions are necessary only if you are trying to transfer TEMP folders from their location installed by the system to another location (this is necessary even in cases where there are problems with the functioning of the Update Center).
Brief Summary
These are simple actions and settings that allow you to quickly solve problems regarding how to change the file saving location at startup and make your own changes to the system or programs used to download the program. As already clear, you need to be extremely careful with variable environments and not need to change the default settings, because due to rash actions you can encounter quite serious problems, which will not be so easy to eliminate (although you can).