This has been an outstanding issue for two years. It’s probably best to go with the portable version: portapps[DOT]io/app/brave-portable/
I’m not so much concerned about a mess in prog files, I can’t afford to install any more apps on C because of space limitations. Brave has somehow missed the trend of manufacturers providing small SSDs and large D drives. Especially on laptops/notebooks.
Follow the install instructions on their page. I choose d\program files and was able to install it this morning when I ran the portable installer as the administrator.
Seems the developers don’t care. Here’s how to change the default install location: (Win10)
0- Close Brave
1- Go to the current profile location: C:\Users[your-user-name]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser
2- Copy the “user Data” directory wherever you want, that will become your new profile location. (I put it on an encrypted disk, in “S:/Brave/”
3- Delete the “User Data” directory from the actual location
4- Open the console in admin mode and type:
cd C:\Users[your-user-name]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser [enter]
Then create a simlink:
mklink /d “User Data” S:\Brave\UserData [enter]
That’s all. Now Brave will open with your profile located at S:/Brave
Brave is a nice software but some things really miss, including this installation option, and even more important, a master password. That’s why I saved my profile on an encrypted disk that I unmount when I don’t use Brave.