We don’t know where a program is installed on Windows system? Let’s find out together using the following methods
Windows programs are kept in very specific folders within the system. These folders should be known and easy to find, as it can be very useful to access them if you have problems uninstalling a programinstalling a program update or checking the installed version of a specific application.
READ ALSO -> See the list of programs installed on your Windows PC
1) Windows folders where we find the programs
The folders used by programs to install their executable files are as follows:
- C:\Program Files
- C:\Program files (x86)
- %appdata%
- %localappdata%
These paths can be opened quickly by File Explorerso as to quickly recover the folder where the program files we are looking for are kept.
Apps installed from the Microsoft Store they can also be placed in the path C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, a hidden folder that is not accessible with standard permissions; we will therefore have to view hidden files and folders e change folder permissions to access it (which we do not recommend, however).
2) Find programs from the Start menu
A very simple method to find where a program is installed in Windows involves use the Start menu and its drop-down menu when we select one of the applications in the list.
To use this trick all we have to do is press the button WIN on the keyboard, right-click on the application whose path we want to know and finally press on Open file locationthus displaying the contents of the program installation folder.
3) Find programs from Task Manager
Also from Activity management we can find where a program or a certain process is installed, even more so if the process is suspicious or a virus.
To proceed we press CTRL+MAIUSC+ESClet’s go to the screen Processeswe right-click on the process to identify and finally press on Open file location to quickly locate the installation path.
On the same topic we can read the guide above how to find hidden processes and suspicious programs to remove in Windows.
4) Find programs from desktop shortcuts
Program shortcuts on your desktop can also become great tools for finding where a program is installed in Windows.
To use this trick, simply right-click on the icon or link and then press on Open file location. This trick is not valid if the program is already present on the desktop, i.e. it is a program portablea program that often runs without other files and folders.
5) Use Everything
If all the previous tricks have not been useful to find where a program is installed in Windows we can rely on a total search tool like Everything. By starting this program we will index every path, every file and every folder on Windows, making it immediately available.
To use the program, start it, type the name of the application we are looking for, right-click and finally click on Open path. Alternatively we can also press on Copy the complete path to the clipboard and paste the result into the address bar of File Explorer.
Conclusions
A program is never completely “invisible” and, although it may seem well hidden, it always has an installation folder somewhere, which we can now easily recover using one of the simple tricks we showed you just now. The best system is without a doubt Everythingbut we can also use the methods integrated into Windows.
To learn more we can read the guides how to remove programs manually without traces and errors (Windows) come on how to open the Apps folder in Windows 10 and 11 with the installation files.