In windows the command center installs only to    C drive (C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\SONAR Platinum) and my C drive does not have enough space to take all Sonar Platinum products, the drive is full, the PC is slow and I cannot uninstall the product. 
 
Please allow us to continue specifying all installation paths like we used to in the previous products.

I am livid that I do not have control of ALL the paths used to install CW products on my computer.
 
NOTHING a user can save should ever be installed into a hidden/buried folder that is not on the default path of every type of backup software.  NOTHING.
 
I want ALL things CW to be installed in a folder in the root folder of the drive I designate.
I do not want anything in the programs folder, the program 86 folder, the user folder.
I should have complete control of the installation process.
 
Platinum has installed itself and other stuff into the programs folder. I am way unhappy.
 
And the paths I had set for projects have not been honored.
 
Years of stupid struggling with fixing DP, Rapture,...  to map to the samples/presets folders on the D drive.
I have all the CW plugins in a folder on the C drive, and the 3rd party plugs on the D drive.
And the platinum install COMPLETELY ignored my settings in X3. So, now I will have to find and move plugs installed the programs folder.
 
I had lots of trouble installing AD last year because I refuse to use the default paths. They had to fix their installer for it to work. Two weeks of stupid because these people follow the MS way instead of thinking.
 
NOTHING a user can save should ever be installed into a hidden/buried folder, that is not on the default path of every backup software.  NOTHING.
This includes samples, settings, presets, programs,....
 
There is ABSOLUTELY NO real reason for not putting everything where the user wants it put. That is what the Windows registry is for. To track the settings of the computer. Every program should provide for the user's input and obey the user's designations.
 
"Defaults" are what the user indicates they should be. Bad programming puts them in stupid places, not easily accessible to users, not easy to backup.

I am also outraged by FORCING USERS to use the C: drive. It is outrageous and totally unacceptable. I have a new, big, and fast system running W8.1/64. Naturally, my C: drive is a small SSD for the OS only. All apps (and even temp scratch space for unpacking zips MAY NOT use my C: drive. SonarPro completely violates this and will have screams of outrage from other SSD users!! I don't even want all the support stuff for instruments going into C:/Program Data (a hidden folder for SYSTEM files!). Getting DimPro/LE, Rapture, P5 stuff, CSC, Studio Instruments, etc stuck in a non-user select-able location is a nightmare on W8.1 as folders can no longer be selectively shown/hidden. I've already put 'Programs' and 'Programs(x86)' folders on each of the 4 drive partitions for apps, but I can't put Sonar where it belongs (ie on my E:Music drive). Managing CW apps/instruments has become a nightmare. Config info belongs in '.ini' files, not the registry! 
 
C: drives are no longer the garbage dumps that Microsoft made them!!
 
Please add default installation paths for everything that needs a directory. It's not that hard. And, stop using the darned 'MS Dir Locator' since it doesn't allow path editing where I can just change that C: to an E: and use the rest of the existing path to not mess with dir structures. Now, I've got to re-create the dir trees manually within the Dir Locator. Lot's of room for improvement here. While the old installer had its problems, it did provide way more flexibility and control about locations. I'm already starting to wonder how re-installation of instruments is going to work as I sort out the most compatible way to arrange 32/64b/Vst/VST2/VST3 locations so my other DAWs all play together nicely.  
 
DOUBLE bump to the OP. 

+1 (bump)

From another thread:
 
"Maybe last note from me on this. Summary and where I ended.

1. Installed Platinum first time from Command Center. It successfully and smoothly installed on my C drive, with no prompts or Advanced install options to ask it to install in a preferred location. My preferred spot is on my D drive.
2. Uninstalled Platinum, no problem.
3. Went into My Accounts on the Cakewalk site, Products, then the Connected Products section at the top in there. Clicked on Platinum. A red Download button appeared. I downloaded the installer. Installed Platinum from that successfully and smoothly onto my D drive. The installer does offer an Advanced button where you can select your preferred install location.
4. Started using Platinum. It's great! Big fan.
5. Update announced for Platinum.
6. I asked in this thread above whether Command Center is smart enough to recognize where you have Platinum installed so you can just update from Command Center. Or, I asked, do I need to repeat the manual install process.
7. It was suggested above that Command Center will work for the update no problem.
8. I then updated from Command Center. Result was that it made a clean, brand new install of everything on my C drive.
9. Uninstalled Platinum (again). This uninstall removed it from both my C drive and the previous version from my D drive.
10. Went back into My Account, downloaded the latest version of the installer for Platinum. The download was smooth. The install to my D drive of the latest, complete version of Platinum was smooth and quick. 
11. Platinum now running fabulous.

Wasn't that big of a hassle or inconvenience, just noting this for anyone wondering what happens on the installs if not wanting to install Platinum to the default C drive directory."
 
It seems a manual installation is the only way to install the package properly and with the options (power)users need.

Unfortunately more files are placed in the many folders created in the programs folders, and the user appdata folder, on the C: drive no matter where Sonar has been installed. I do not want anything put in those places without my permission.
 
The previous installers have all been crap. I want ALL samples on the D disk in the samples folder. None of the installers have ever put where I request. And many do not have the option. SD puts them in the vst folder!
 
I do not want any samples or settings placed in the buried programs folders.
 
I am sad the CW dudes have and continue to follow the insanity MS created with real dumb arbitrary default locations, and the truly idiotic way they instituted multi-user configurations.
 
And the legacy of stupid lives on.  Oh sure it is "easier" for tech support to assume the default locations. And the command center appears to want to require the default locations be where they "should" be.
 
To me this is so Apple iCrap. "Make it so the user can barely change anything and we will not have them calling and complaining because they put stuff where we do not want it to be."
 
But this is what the windows registry is for! To keep track of where stuff is. So not only are programs put where they do not make sense to be. The installers do not use the registry to learn anything, just to dump stuff.
 
Well, don't get me started.

Count me in for wanting to be able to control where I install as well.  I also don't want to stop using the Command Center because the ancient method of installing and upgraded was really painful...
 
 
pace

C'mon CW! With all the advanced features Sonar has, you can't get C3 to do basic installation right? These are must-have features for a complex application that is often installed on dedicated systems with very specific drive configurations.
 
From what I can tell, there isn't even a way to uninstall DimPro or Rapture once one made the mistake of initially going through C3. Neither C3 nor Add/Remove Programs allow you to uninstall it. So the mistake can't even be fixed even if using the manual install option after the fact.
 
Some other issue, although not nearly as big as the missing destination options... I have Melodyne Editor, so initially hid Essential in C3. I found out later that it is the one and same executable. Meaning I could just keep it up to date by going via C3, and updating "Melodyne Essential". Anyway, there is no way to unhide a product once hidden. Someone suggested I log out/in from within C3. This was a big mistake, because I had to do everything from scratch again. C3 didn't recognize any of the installed products, so I had to re-install everything again. Which brings me to...
 
Yet another related suggestion... Please have the option of adding checkbox to each product (with a button for each for their destination), so that we can install all products in one go. This one-by-one install is a big time waster. Half the time is wasted just waiting for C3 to refresh itself after each and every individual install.
 
I was really surprised to find from blipofthefish's post that C3 doesn't even recognize previous installs on a non-C drive.

+1 (just showing support for this thread - but I'm sure CW will fix this)

I'm bit annoyed with this as well. I just installed Sonar 2015 yesterday but now all is on C and not on my other SSD which I've dedicated for things like this. You should never force users to install to a specific folder, this isn't 90's anymore :)
 
Of course you could use symlinks to keep the actual files on different drive and make the programs think they are on C but it can get messy quickly if you need to do this for everything.
 
As a fast workaround at least, could you just allow limiting Command Center to check for updates and only download them so users could then manually install them on advanced mode?
 
What makes this whole installation process worse is that current upgrading from X3 is a total mess. My X3 was from steam so some of the CW paths for new installation were still pointing into old X3 path on steam folder, even though I uninstalled X3. Also Dimension Pro and Rapture didn't register anymore, for some reason they asked for registration keys for X3 bundled serials. As steam version doesn't give those, it was a dead end. Also neither of those plugins allow you to change the serials to ones shipped with new Sonar either, I even tried to remove previous keys from windows registry, user folder, program data, steam folder (yes, CW spreads this stuff literally everywhere, why?) but it always reset to the old serial eventually.
 
What I'm trying to do next, is delete everything CW related from my C + registry I can find and do a complete reinstall for everything, hope it will work eventually..
 
edit-> Deleting everything with name Cakewalk helped on reinstallation but it was a tedious process. It took me 40 minutes to clean up windows registry alone (and saw that loads of dll's were still linked to the old installation directory). Now Dimension Pro + Rapture work just fine as well.