Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (Link Removed due to 404 Error)
No problem at all, when you run an installation program, it
will create a registry entry for installed programs, it
doesn't matter whether the program path is C:\Programs or
F:\programs. There will always be a little of the program
on your C:\ drive in the Windows registry, but the bilk of
the program file can be anywhere. The same goes for other
files types, Windows puts My Documents in the Windows
folders on C: by default, but if you have a second drive (or
partition) Windows XP makes it easy to move the My Documents
folder elsewhere with just a few clicks. Prior versions of
Windows needed TweakUI to do this.
Just remember, that if your OS crashes and you have to do a
clean install to fix the problem, you will still need to
reinstall the programs because the registry won't exist to
point to the programs on the other drive, which are now
orphaned.
I set my computer up to have programs and operating system
on C: and all other data and files on other partitions. If
I have some program that I want to experiment with, I will
install that on some partition other than C: so I can remove
it without too much conflict with space.