Had to Reinstall Windows. Programs?

[micrometers]

Really annoyed. Had to reinstall Windows.

because I have 2 hds...program installs are saved, but a windows install is awful.

Lots of steam games especially. I could just redownload them, but that would be a lot of bandwidth and I'd rather not.

So how to?

 

[Fardringle]

Most programs rely on Registry keys and files in the Windows and Program Files folders. Because of this, you will almost always have to reinstall your programs when you reinstall Windows.

 

[ringtail]

"How" is answered brilliantly here.

QUOTE (EXCERPT)
Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall

By Fred Langa on July 14, 2011

Microsoft won’t tell you this, but you can do a fast, nondestructive, in-place, total reinstall of Windows 7 without damaging your user accounts, data, installed programs, or system drivers.

That means you may never have to do a full, from-scratch reinstall again, even when your system is misbehaving so badly that a full reformat-and-reinstall seems the only answer!

END OF QUOTE

 

[Dahak]

For steam, I believe, if you re-install the client and then point it to the data directory it should pick up all the games that have been installed already