title: How to FULLY install Android Studio to a non-default (D:) drive
body: <p>I'm going to start with the high-level "common sense" question and then get into the tech details:</p>
  
  <p>The high-level question:  When running the Android Studio installation program in Windows 10, and I tell it to install to D: drive (instead of the default C: drive), why does it insist on installing some components onto the C: drive?</p>
  
  <p>Reasons for installing to a non-default drive: </p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Brand new high-performance gaming laptops, such as my ASUS Republic Of Gamers, come pre-installed with Windows 10 and two drives:  A C: drive labeled "OS" and a D: drive labeled "DATA".  The C: drive has just enough room for Windows 10 plus some buffer for future "OS" upgrades.  The D: drive is orders of magnitude larger.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>The obvious intent was for all third-party (non-OS) programs to live on D: drive, or at least not on C: "OS" drive. (I will ignore the "separation of 'code' and 'data' design paradigm, which would rightfully require a third P: 'PROGRAM' drive, and I'll just focus on the lack-of-space problem.)</p>
  
  <ol start="2">
  <li>Reading over the other stackoverflow questions by searching for "android install d drive" yield several hits, which talk around this higher-level concept, but are about more detailed issues, such as where to put the jdk and/or the sdk, missing  gradle libraries, tinkering with environment variables and such, but the central theme in them appears (to me at least) to be about putting the IDE on the d: drive (fully or partially), and the consequent errors encountered while attempting that.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <h2>The bottom line is that apparently I'm not the only one with limited space on C: drive who had to struggle with the IDE install.</h2>
  
  <p>After 5 install/uninstall attempts, each time changing all "c:" text box prompts to "d:" and learning more and more about the various libraries and folders that STILL went to c: drive, I've finally found all the big ones, and set symbolic links for them, and moved their contents over to d: drive targets.</p>
  
  <p>There are still a few "minor"(?) files and directories on c: drive that I'm not really sure belong to Android Studio, but I'm too chicken/lazy to set up the symbolic links for them...but here's my high-level question for the Android Studio developers:</p>
  
  <p>WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO?  WHY CAN'T THIS BE MADE SIMPLE AND INTUITIVE? If I tell the install program to put EVERYTHING on the d: drive (IDE, sdk, jdk, gradle, emulator, and so on)  why can't the install program just do that?  </p>
  
  <p>Am I missing something simple here?  If I am missing something simple or obvious, then why does it (and my first app) build and run just fine if I set all these symbolic links to d: drive targets?  </p>