How to install on my D Drive instead of C Drive?

[mal2994]

I wasn't presented any option by the installer to choose an installation location. So, unavoidably, I have a 500mb install of Thorium in C:\Users\xyz\AppData\Local\Programs. Can I just move that folder to my D drive? My C Drive is really small, so usually I keep programs on D.

[MLuc24]

The missing option is deliberate rather than a glitch — it's turned off in the build config (package.json):

"nsis": {
  "oneClick": false,
  "perMachine": false,
  ...
  "allowToChangeInstallationDirectory": false,

allowToChangeInstallationDirectory: false is what removes the directory page, and perMachine: false is why it lands in your user profile under AppData\Local\Programs instead of Program Files. There's also no portable Windows build to sidestep it with — the release assets are Thorium.Setup.<version>.exe plus the Linux and macOS ones, nothing standalone.

I'd avoid just dragging the folder to D:. The uninstaller lives inside that folder and the registry entry Windows uses for "Uninstall" records the path it was installed to, so moving it leaves you with a broken uninstall entry, and the updater writes into the recorded location too.

What does work cleanly is moving the files and leaving a junction behind, so every recorded path stays valid while the bytes live on D:. Close Thorium, then from an admin prompt:

move "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Thorium" "D:\Thorium"
mklink /J "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Thorium" "D:\Thorium"

Windows follows the junction transparently, so the app, its shortcuts, the updater and the uninstaller all behave as if nothing changed.

Worth knowing your reading data isn't in that folder anyway — it's under %APPDATA% separately, so this only relocates the program itself. And ~500 MB is just what a packaged Electron app costs; it won't grow as you add books.

[mal2994]

Thanks for the prompt reply. If I have an eBook library already categorized into folders on my D Drive can I just point Thorium to that?

[danielweck]

Thank you @MLuc24 for helping out :)
Your mklink tip is useful.

Worth knowing your reading data isn't in that folder anyway — it's under %APPDATA% separately, so this only relocates the program itself

...the subfolder inside %APPDATA% is named EDRLab.ThoriumReader. That is the default filesystem where the publication files imported into the local bookshelf reside. Version 3.5.0 is introducing a new feature to relocate this data to any arbitrary folder, this can be configured via the application settings. Feel free to give this a try with the first Release Candidate (make sure to create a backup before moving files, just in case):

https://github.com/edrlab/thorium-reader/releases/tag/v3.5.0-rc.1

I am tagging @panaC who is the core developer who gets the credit for this new feature!

[danielweck]

Just as an additional data point (not an official recommendation at this stage, as we need to explore possible bugs), the --user-data-dir command line argument exists for Chromium ( https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/user_data_dir.md ).

It works on MacOS (tested with rm -rf ~/Desktop/th-tmp ; mkdir -p ~/Desktop/th-tmp ; /Applications/Thorium.app/Contents/MacOS/Thorium --user-data-dir=/Users/danielweck/Desktop/th-tmp)

It also works in development mode (tested with rm -rf ~/Desktop/th-tmp ; mkdir -p ~/Desktop/th-tmp ; node_modules/.bin/electron . --user-data-dir=/Users/admin/Desktop/th-tmp).

It was reported working by my colleague @panaC on Windows too.