Brave-browser: Add option to install to alternative location

[thesohelshaikh]

The setup automatically installs onto the default location which may not be a very good choice for people with low storage or a small SSD.

Solution 1: Allow users to change the install location while setup.
Solution 2: Provide an alternative way to download, you can put up severel releases users can download and place it in preffered location.

[bengaywins]

And can we have an _all_ users option too? If one were to install this just in a user's app data folder, this means you could have 30 installs of the same application. This is dumb.

[srirambv]

This is a known issue on Chrome as well which was logged (https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113987) in 2012 and still not fixed.

cc: @bbondy

[thesohelshaikh]

Considering Brave is open source, i hope it gets fixed. Chrome is goto browser for me and I can’t afford another browser running on my SSD.

[srirambv]

+1 from @marseye via #1143

[Neustradamus]

Any news?

Folder choice, for actual user, all users and standalone.

[bsclifton]

@Neustradamus no update as far as I know

In the meantime (as a work-around), you should be able to symlink this on Windows using junctions. For example, if you know it'll install to C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\, create a junction for that to where you'd like

Some more detailed info at: https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/278262-mklink-create-use-links-windows.html

[eljuno]

+1s from Community

https://community.brave.com/t/how-to-change-installation-location/44766?u=eljuno

https://community.brave.com/t/how-can-i-install-brave-to-other-volume/99964?u=eljuno

[Neustradamus]

@bsclifton It is not a solution!

[bsclifton]

@Neustradamus I understand, it's not a solution- but I just wanted to provide a work-around since this issue isn't prioritized yet

Solving this may not be trivial since we'll need to update the installers to present a UI allowing for folder selection

What would you folks think about a new installer command line argument? like --install-path="C:\my-brave-install"?

[thesohelshaikh]

An option to choose install location is a must have. I don’t see why this isn’t a priority. As i suggested you don’t need to build a UI. You could just provide a complete build of the software so user can place it wherever @bsclifton

Anyway if command line install is the only option than it’s more than welcome.

[bsclifton]

@thesohelshaikh does Chrome have this? You mentioned it's your "goto browser"... but we're using the same installers as Chromium (just modified). Regarding the UI, how else would the user specify it? Basically, the extra complexity of having an OS specific folder picker is what I mean

cc: @rebron

[RiseT]

@bsclifton Haven't used the "standard" Chrome installer for a long while, but Google offers an (additional) offline installer that installs Chrome to the Program Files folder:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/install-google-chrome-in-program-files-folder-instead-of-appdata/
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/?standalone=1

[cinereous]

A command line option would be better than nothing. I'm still trying to wrap my head around a browser that purports to return some control to the user isn't capable of allowing the basic choice of where to install it.

I've read back through two years on this issue, including an atom thread where a developer stated it was "dumb question" to ask a user where they want to place software on their machine or to give more than a single click installation choice.¹ Given that most people who would be adventurous enough to install Brave in the first place likely have very specific places they want software, it's really unfathomable how this still hasn't been fixed.

Chrome/Chromium and offshoots like Slimjet all have portable and/or standalone versions that allow placing in a location of choice.

And without having to create a symlink. On Windows. FFS.

¹ https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/7095#issuecomment-116099279

[Neustradamus]

Any news?

[thesohelshaikh]

As @bsclifton said this isn’t priority, I don’t think this is being worked on. It’s been a year since this issue was raised and still no progress. There are so many approaches to solve this problem which also do not require to write extra code.

One other option I can think of is allowing the user to download the compiled version of the browser and then user can place it anywhere.

[bsclifton]

While it's unofficial, there is a portable version of Brave available:
https://portapps.io/app/brave-portable/

It seems to be kept up to date; props to the maintainers for that work 😄

[cinereous]

Having to use an unofficial third party version to do what the official build should be able to do seems sketchy and weird. What issues are preventing this from being addressed?

What needs to be done for the developers at Brave to _embrace a new way of thinking about how the web works and give us users a safer and better browsing experience,_ including something as simple and fundamental as the choice of where to install it?¹

¹ https://brave.com/about/

[brnnnrsmssn]

i want to use this myself and cajole the rest of my family and friends to convert to a more privacy-centric mentality so they can stop being happy that they are being commoditized, but i cannot and will not recommend this browser to anyone for use on their desktop until this issue is solved.

[srirambv]

+1 from https://community.brave.com/t/unable-to-choose-where-to-install-brave/84973/2 for not being able to choose a location for install

[NZ-HIPS]

+1
This is one of the three minor issues that prevent me from migrating our userbase to brave.

[Neustradamus]

Any news?

All good softwares when we install use by default "Program Files" (or recently "Program Files (x86)" for 32 bit apps in 64 bit system).
Bad softwares do not use it.

It is since Windows 95 and maybe before, no?

[KyferEz]

This has my vote as well. It's unacceptable that we cannot choose where to install to. I especially HATE when software that tries to install to my user profile instead of the Program Files folders. It's a COMPLETE WASTE of space for MultiUser environments! Until this is changed, I will not use this software.

[KyferEz]

+1
This is one of the three _minor_ issues that prevent me from migrating our userbase to brave.

"Minor" indeed true sarcasm as it's Not minor at ALL for multi-user environments!

[WolfganP]

+1 Same need here to maintain environment control of what's installed and where.

[tinkicker]

Ooopsie! Just installed Brave since sync is now functioning across Windows/iOS, and forgot that this is one of the issues from a year or so ago that kept me using Firefox (the other was the sync thing).
I don't think I'll buy a larger boot SSD just to use this. Uninstalling, but will check back in the future for progress on this feature parity with Mozilla.
C'mon, guys!

[someaddons]

Wondering that sth this vital takes over two years.

[SalieriC]

I decided to try Brave out and was immediately disappointed. How can something this vital not be a thing in a browser which aims to make everything better?

[dadagama]

year 2020,
victim of small ssd hard drive.
i hope this can be fixed

[th33xitus]

@bsclifton
Almost 2 years have passed and there is still a force install on C.

I wanted to give Brave a try, but noticing it installing on C without having an option to change that made me immediately uninstall it again.

You guys really don't care, do you?

[bsclifton]

@th33xitus I'm definitely sorry if you got the impression we don't care ☹️ We do - but there are so many things being tracked for the project. It always comes down to priorities - for example getting a stable version of Sync (sync v2), upgrading Chromium, fixing crashes, fixing bugs (versus enhancements), and a lot more (over 2,200 issues at the time this is being written). And unfortunately, there are only a certain number of employees able to grab work

This is a great one that I would love to work with a contributor on. The BraveSetup.exe stub installer on Windows downloads the mini-installer.exe from Omaha. That should be containing the logic for where default install path is. We'd need to make this configurable and then come up with a UI (or add an optional command line flag)

cc: @rebron for help prioritizing this issue

[RottenSod]

Uninstalling Brave until this issue is fixed.
Bye.

[sectoidleader]

I saw Firefox is laying off even more people, saw a comment pointing to Brave, downloaded, installed, uninstalled immediately when I couldn't pick where it installed. Looked for an offline installer, installed again, immediately uninstalled when I couldn't pick where it installed.

Then I reinstalled the browser and just cut the BraveSoftware folder out of "Program Files (x86)," renamed it, and put it where I wanted it. So far it seems to be working (still on the same drive, though, so YMMV).

Hopefully the browser itself exceeds these first impressions.

[bsclifton]

@sectoidleader you may need to edit some registry for that to work completely (ex: on updates) - but that is a legit work-around

Try snooping around HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\BraveSoftware to see if there are any paths referencing the Program Files (x86) version of the path and you should be able to update those. You'll likely want to close Brave before making that change (after quitting, you can check for BraveUpdate.exe process in task manager and kill those too)

[th33xitus]

@bsclifton
Are there any more changes need to be done? Especially more folders which get created during the install and fill up the c drive except the Brave folder itself?

Are there any further restrictions to the functionality of Brave if i manually move Brave and edit the registry? If stuff works that way, i would give Brave a second chance. A little bit of fiddling around is no issue for me if the program then runs fine.
Though i still hope a custom install location is still on the roadmap.

[bsclifton]

@th33xitus no- that should be it 😄

[th33xitus]

@bsclifton fyi: updates aren't possible with the workaround

now i need to figure out somehow how to get the latest stable binaries for updating it manually...

[thesohelshaikh]

Will this be ever worked upon? It has been over 2 years now. I tried using it on my main SSD for a long time and the browser has a huge memory footprint.

Sadly, I am switching over to Firefox until this is addressed.

[HyugAG0d]

come on fix this already @bsclifton it`s been 2 yrs.

[iBeny]

Will UNINSTALL Brave since we can't choose the installation path...

[Neustradamus]

@ all, there is a ticket about problems from @Squirrel installer: https://github.com/Squirrel-installer-problems/info/issues/1
Please comment on it...
And please inform about other softwares with the same problem too.

[bigben2159]

I copy all the files from C to D , its working , maybe later on I will have problems or not.