How to Find a Software Installation Folder in Windows Using a Desktop Shortcut

Software comes in many different types, and most are designed to support a wide range of human activities, whether for work, learning, or entertainment, in fact, software is often developed to meet the needs or demands of its users, which is why many useful software programs continue to be available and evolve to this day.

However, did you know that software does not always consist of just a single program file like most smartphone apps? Some software programs contain multiple files and folders that are usually stored on the system partition, namely Local Disk C:

When you want to remove all data associated with a software program from your computer, you may need to find the folder where its files are stored, why is this necessary? Because by accessing that folder, you can identify any files left behind after uninstalling the program, although you need to be careful not to delete files that are still needed by the system or other software.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to find the installation folder of software installed on your computer using a desktop shortcut, how do you do it? Let's follow the steps below.

Tutorial:

1. First, make sure you're on the desktop, then right-click the shortcut of the software or game whose installation folder you want to find.
2. Next, select Properties from the context menu that appears.
   

   
   
   
   
3. In the Properties window, open the Shortcut tab.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Find the Target field, then copy the file path shown in that field, starting from the drive letter all the way to the program's executable file name, make sure you don't include the double quotation marks if the file path is enclosed in them..
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
5. After that, paste the file path you copied into Notepad.
6. Once you've done that, make sure you remove the software name and its file extension in Notepad, for example, as shown in the image below, delete everything from the last backslash to the software name and its file extension .exe, so remove the software name along with the backslash as indicated by the red box I've marked.
   
   
   
   
   

   It should look something like this

   
   
7. Once that's done, open My Computer or Windows File Explorer.
8. In File Explorer or My Computer, you'll see an address bar like the one i've marked with a green box.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Click the address bar once until its contents are selected, then paste the file path you previously prepared in Notepad into the address bar.
   

   
   
   
   
10. Once you've done that, press the Enter key on your keyboard.
11. You should now be able to open the folder containing the software's files using the path you've prepared.
12. That's it, you're all set!