How to change default location of i386 folder in Windows

[Bankebihari]

hello,

I want to find the i386 folder that is the default folder where the setup files or installation files of Windows are stored. Also how do I change the location of this i386 folder ? Does anybody have any information regarding the same...... kindly give your suggestions and ideas

thanks

[jesse]

Follow these steps to change the location of i386 folder -

• Open the registry editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'SOFTWARE'Microsoft'Windows'CurrentVersion'Setup
  
• Highlight the Setup folder.
  
• On the right pane, locate the SourcePath.
  
• Double-click the SourcePath and replace the drive letter in the box to C:' (if you copied the files to your C:' drive). Make sure it's C:' and not C:'i386.
  
• Close the registry editor.

If the system ever needs files from the i386 folder, it will automatically look in the C:'i386 folder.

[SalVatore]

When windows is installed on your system, it stores the path of the source from where the setup is being installed. The source could be a cd drive, a network path or any other source. Upon browsing the path to add windows components, windows always looks at the given source path that points to the "i386" folder of the installation files. This setting enables you to change the location of source files for windows setup.

For this,
go to start > run, enter "regedit" and search the keys listed below.
Now, double-click the value name "sourcepath" under "setup" key, and change the value data field with the new source files location for windows setup.
Refresh view of your computer for the changes to take effect.

Note: if the "i386" folder is at "d:\winxp\i386", the value of sourcepath would be "d:\winxp".

[MrChris-]

I would like to do two things relating to the \i386 folder -

1) I would like to copy the i386 folder to my HDD and then have the system
reference that folder instead of asking for the CD when I want to add a
component.

2) I would like to install/copy the installation CD to a HDD and perform an
clean install from that location.