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Long story short: I'm writing a shim for running custom privileged scripts with Windows' native shell. To test that, I'd like to have a set of custom-forged installations, one of which would involve the system installed to a non-standard location (i.e. not C:\Windows). That said, I can't figure out a way how to automate it - I've read pretty much everything on DISM, sysprep, SIM, PE and the only related thing I've stumbled upon is how to change default user profile directories (which I don't need). The worst part is that I remember being able to do so in the past - though I can't recall using what tools and how exactly in general.

Is such a thing possible or have I gone insane?

Windows 10 if that's relevant (10.0.16257+ to be more specific).

mataha
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    In 25 years of using Windows, I have never once heard, of being able to do what you describe. I would say your trying to do something that isn’t possible to solve a problem that has an easier solution – Ramhound May 23 '23 at 02:08
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    @Ramhound all of my production copies of XP and 2K, workstation and server, were installed to D:\Windows. Test and Dev to other locations. It certainly used to be possible and supported and an installer option. Later versions of the Dot Net installer didn't recognize it, which leads me to suspect it is no longer supported. Perhaps all that is left is the API that tells you "where windows is installed". – user165568 May 23 '23 at 03:22
  • @Ramhound in the times of Windows 3.x or 9x it's possible to install Windows on different folders and IIRC many people even installed 9x and XP or 3.x in the same partition. Windows 2K also didn't use `Windows` folder at all but install into `WinNT` by default – phuclv May 23 '23 at 03:48
  • [Triple Booting Windows 98, 2000, and XP on same partition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-btn02Dj8UQ) – phuclv May 23 '23 at 04:40
  • The best way I have found for old operating systems is virtual machines. – John May 23 '23 at 11:47
  • This is how it looks like on XP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNhO9WXmin4 https://i.stack.imgur.com/TJGHk.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/0gCuX.png – phuclv May 24 '23 at 15:59

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