Internet Explorer 9 is an admirable iteration for Microsoft’s still market share leading browser. If you’ve rushed out to download the new version, currently in release-candidate status, you’ve already taken a few moments to poke around and see what’s new.

One of the trends in usability across all the browsers is simplification of the interface when downloading files. Browsers today all default to a Save directory directly, rather than prompting where you’d like to save the file. You can think of it as a one-click download, if you will. Internet Explorer 9 is no exception; it’s located at Users\username\Downloads. Logically this makes sense, except if that location resides on a hard drive low on space – perhaps your solid state drive? In that instance it’s quite beneficial to relocate the default save directory.

Within Internet Explorer 9 open the Downloads dialog via Tools->View Downloads.

Locate the Options link in the lower left hand side of the window.

The Default download location is displayed here – you can see it’s currently set to Downloads. Changing the default location can be done by Browseing to the new desired location. Future downloads will then default to that save folder.