Changing the Default Installation Path in Windows Application

• Right click on your setup project root in Solution Explorer and choose "View -> File System"
• Click on (select) "Application Folder" in the window which opened.
• If you look in the "Properties Pane" in Visual Studio there is an entry called "DefaultLocation". Change this to point it somewhere besides "Program Files".

Default value for location is [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]. These are placeholders variables which are looked up when you compile the setup project. [ProgramFilesFolder] is the one which will point to "Program Files" in an English version of Windows.

In a Visual Studio Setup project, you control the default install path by setting the DefaultLocation property of the Application Folder folder, within the File System Editor.

This, in turn, as you've found, defaults to [ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\\[ProductName]. You can either replace this property entirely or you can modify these properties.

Ex: D:\\[Manufacturer]\\[ProductName]