Alternate destination folder for ArcGIS Pro Coordinate Systems Data and other ArcGIS pro extensions

Question

I just installed ArcGIS Pro 2.0 and now want to install the "ArcGIS Pro Coordinate Systems Data" file.

When installing the Coordinate Systems Data the default destination folder is C:\Users\username\Documents\ArcGIS Pro 2.0.  However, this doesn't seem like a good location if multiple users might use the same computer....so, I have 3 questions:

* What is the recommended alternative location that would be accessible to all users?
* If the Coordinate Systems Data is not installed in the default Users folder, are there any extra steps required to point ArcGIS Pro to the alternate Coordinate Systems Data location?
* Same problem and questions for installing "ArcGIS Data interop Ext for Pro", "ArcGISProHelp_20", etc.

mrmark · Answer

Frances - although Joshua's guess makes sense, it is not the case. There are two different packages containing the coordinate system data. The screenshot below is from the My Esri download page for Pro 2.6 but it has been that way for a while.

The one you are dealing with is ArcGIS Coordinate Systems Data for ArcGIS Pro Per User Install, and by design installs into the user's Documents folder with the logic that only that user will be running ArcGIS Pro since it is licensed to the user.

If you download the other one (ArcGIS Coordinate Systems Data) from the ArcGIS Pro section of My Esri when you unpack it, it will unpack into the ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.1 folder. This one installs by default into

C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\CoordinateSystemsData\

If you are also installing ArcGIS 10.x then both ArcMap and Pro will use the data from that location.

If you don't like it there, you can tell the ArcGIS Pro specific installer where to put it. Here is the line from my installation script to put it in C:\ProgramData\Esri.

msiexec /i "%~dp0ProCoordinateSystemsData\ProCoordinateSystemsData.msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\ProgramData\Esri" /qn

FrancesBiles · Answer

Thanks for replying Joshua.

I am part of the Administrators group on my PC.

What is the default location supposed to be?!

JoshuaBixby · Answer

Do you have elevated/admin privileges?  My guess is that it is defaulting to your user profile space because it can't install to the default location.