A bold Installation Question

My apologies if these have been asked elsewhere previously and answered, but here's a question I had and couldn't find explained elsewhere about installing; is it absolutely necessary to install M2TW in a location other than Program Files (x86)? I'm aware that UAC could cause problems, but having installed other large mods such as Elder Scrolls Total War and TATW, which did not require having to install the vanilla game elsewhere, I am just curious as to why EB II requires such. If I can avoid reinstalling a large game on a somewhat limited space hard drive, it would be for the better. Furthermore, I could simply disable UAC and automatic date/time settings and delete entries in the virtual store, which was actually what some mods and submods would have a user do to prevent startup crashes.

Yes, it is necessary. The mod won't work properly, and you will be unable to patch (and there are always patches).

We've learned this through bitter experience of people getting inexplicable issues with partially-updated files (that you aren't told haven't been properly updated). The only way to be sure is to move your installation.

Fair enough. Thanks for replying.

Well, if you know what you're doing enough to check the UAC store and fix problems in it, you might be alright as that would mitigate the problems it solves. But it's far easier / safer advice to put it elsewhere.

However, Steam lets you move a game installation to a new folder automatically, so you don't have to reinstall (unless you mean you have the CD version).

I simply decided to install a separate instance of the game on the desktop and place EB there, I am indeed using the CD version. Steam makes it even more difficult to install mods sometimes!