Knowing target locations of installed applications

[tamilvendan]

Hi friends! Is there any way to know all the target locations of files of the installed applications? Like when a software is installed , where all it writes its files , including the registry. Is there any software or any method to monitor and retrieve ?


Thanks in advance.

[ravi_9793]

well...right click on main file(may be on desktop..or start menu)--->>properties
There is the location of that file.All program files are stored there.For registry..U need to have some knowledge of registry.

[tamilvendan]

Originally Posted by ravi_9793

well...right click on main file(may be on desktop..or start menu)--->>properties
There is the location of that file.All program files are stored there.For registry..U need to have some knowledge of registry.

Hi thanks for your reply but that is not sufficient. I hope no application writes its all files in just one location. Like it writes in program files, complus applications, common files, application data of ( all users, default users, administrator) and in system32 of windows and may be in many other places as well. This u can know, whenever we uninstall any application, there are many files left in many places. This whole bundle of locations i want to know. Is there any method or program which can trace all this?

[hullap]

You can even keep your mouse on the shortcut

[Lucky_star]

There are installation monitors available which you have to run while installing an application. It will keep track of all the locations where the files went and all those changes made to the registry are logged. You can make a log file and later uninstall it directly from this log file.

[tamilvendan]

Originally Posted by Lucky_star

There are installation monitors available which you have to run while installing an application. It will keep track of all the locations where the files went and all those changes made to the registry are logged. You can make a log file and later uninstall it directly from this log file.

Hi Lucky star! That was an excellent information i was looking for. Thanks for that.I even downloaded one such tool. In the same way can we track down the file locations of already installed applications?

[Lucky_star]

Originally Posted by tamilvendan

In the same way can we track down the file locations of already installed applications?

I don't think you can figure out the locations of already installed applications.

[navjotjsingh]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...k/Filemon.mspx
This utility from Sysinternals can monitor while installation all the locations a installer writes to.

For finding locations of already installed softwares try viewing files such as install.log or any other installation log file in software folder. It can give a fair idea about locations a software got installed to.