How to Install Epic Games Launcher on a Different Drive

Most Windows PCs ship with a single C: drive as the default installation target — and Epic Games Launcher follows that default automatically. But if your C: drive is running low on space, or you've added a dedicated games drive, you can install the launcher (and your games) on a different drive entirely. Here's how it works and what to consider before you start.

Why Install Epic Games Launcher on a Different Drive?

The Epic Games Launcher itself is relatively lightweight, but the games it manages can easily consume dozens to hundreds of gigabytes each. Keeping your OS drive clean — especially if it's a smaller SSD — and offloading game storage to a secondary drive is a common and practical approach.

There are two distinct decisions here that are often confused:

• Where the Epic Games Launcher application installs (the client software itself)
• Where your games install (the game files managed by the launcher)

You can control both, but they're handled separately.

Installing the Epic Games Launcher to a Different Drive

By default, the Epic Games Launcher installer places the application in C:Program Files (x86)Epic Games. To change this during a fresh installation:

1. Download the installer from the official Epic Games website.
2. Run the installer — during setup, look for an option to change the installation directory.
3. Click Browse or Change next to the default path and navigate to your preferred drive (e.g., D:Epic Games).
4. Complete the installation as normal.

⚠️ The installer interface may vary slightly depending on which version you download. Some users report that the standard web installer does not always present a directory selection screen clearly — if you don't see a path selector, watch for it on the second or third screen of the wizard.

What If You've Already Installed It on C:?

If the launcher is already installed on your C: drive and you want to move it, the cleanest approach is:

1. Uninstall the launcher through Windows Settings > Apps.
2. Reinstall it, this time specifying your preferred drive during setup.

There are manual file-move methods floating around online, but they can break registry entries and cause authentication issues. A clean reinstall is more reliable.

🗂️ Note: Uninstalling the launcher does not delete your game files. Your games are stored separately in whatever library folder you set (or the default), so they won't be affected by reinstalling the launcher.

Changing Where Epic Games Installs Your Games

This is the more impactful setting for most users. Even if the launcher itself stays on C:, you can direct all game downloads to a different drive.

Setting a Default Install Location

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher.
2. Click your profile icon (top right) and go to Settings.
3. Scroll down to find Default Install Location.
4. Click the path shown and Browse to select a folder on your preferred drive.

From this point forward, any new game you download will default to that location. You'll still get the option to choose a location per game at the time of download if you prefer flexibility.

Managing Multiple Library Folders

If you have games spread across multiple drives, you can manage them by adding additional library paths in Settings. This is useful if you're migrating games over time or want certain large titles on a faster NVMe drive and others on a larger HDD.

Drive Type Matters for Performance 🚀

Where you install your games affects more than just storage capacity:

Games with large open worlds or frequent streaming (like open-world RPGs or shooters) benefit meaningfully from faster drives. Games that are mostly loaded upfront and then run from memory are less sensitive to drive speed after the initial load.

If your secondary drive is an HDD, you'll likely notice longer initial load screens compared to an SSD — though in-game performance, once loaded, is typically determined by your CPU and GPU, not drive speed.

Variables That Affect Your Setup

How this plays out in practice depends on several factors specific to your situation:

• How many drives you have and their sizes and speeds
• Whether your secondary drive is already formatted and recognized by Windows
• The size of games in your library — some titles are 10GB, others exceed 150GB
• Whether you're migrating an existing library or starting fresh
• Your OS drive's current free space and how close it is to capacity

A user with a 256GB C: SSD and a 2TB secondary HDD is going to approach this very differently than someone with two large NVMe drives. The steps above are the same, but which drive deserves which games — and whether the launcher itself should move — depends entirely on your storage layout and what you're actually playing.