Where are all my programs?

krisko09 · 31 Mar 2012

I recently had to uninstall/ reinstall windows on my laptop. I had backed everything up prior to and was able to find/get back all of my pics, music, docs, etc, but can't seem to find any of my programs (I.e., mcafee, microsoft office, etc).. please help!

bobkn · 31 Mar 2012

The short answer is that you can't back up installed programs.

You can make an image of the system, and use it to restore the condition of the PC to the time when the image was created.

I hope that you have installation media for all of the programs you need. If not, things may get awkward and expensive.

Katherinez212 · 02 Apr 2012

Nothing to be done now.....

kado897 · 02 Apr 2012

Regrettably unless you have an image to restore then no. However there are lots of free programs out there which may save you a lot of cash. Take a look at this link. FREE Great Programs for Windows 7 [2]

DeaconFrost · 02 Apr 2012

Unless you used a restore disc, you won't have any of those programs. If you used a plain vanilla Windows 7 disc, then you'll need to reinstall everything...which might be a blessing for you, if you previously were using Mcafee.

henrywilliams · 05 Apr 2012

krisko09 said:

I recently had to uninstall/ reinstall windows on my laptop. I had backed everything up prior to and was able to find/get back all of my pics, music, docs, etc, but can't seem to find any of my programs (I.e., mcafee, microsoft office, etc).. please help!

Windows can't back up installed applications what they can back up is only data files. You can re install these applications and I am sure you have kept their back up files.

kado897 · 05 Apr 2012

henrywilliams said:

krisko09 said:

I recently had to uninstall/ reinstall windows on my laptop. I had backed everything up prior to and was able to find/get back all of my pics, music, docs, etc, but can't seem to find any of my programs (I.e., mcafee, microsoft office, etc).. please help!

Windows can't back up installed applications what they can back up is only data files. You can re install these applications and I am sure you have kept their back up files.

Actually Windows can backup programs. An image of your OS partitions will backup everything on those partitions, Windows, programs settings and data.

pparks1 · 05 Apr 2012

Unfortunately, you have discovered now why the use of imaging software has become so popular. The great news is that the programs are free and work well. The bad news is that you cannot take advantage of it now to get your old stuff back. But now that you are setting up again, you can use it going forward to prevent these problems from happening in the future.

seavixen32 · 05 Apr 2012

krisko09 said:

I recently had to uninstall/ reinstall windows on my laptop. I had backed everything up prior to and was able to find/get back all of my pics, music, docs, etc, but can't seem to find any of my programs (I.e., mcafee, microsoft office, etc).. please help!

If you go to your laptop manufacturer's support site, you may be able to download backup copies of your pre-installed software.

Other than that you could ask them for a replacement recovery disc and reinstall everything from that.

kado897 · 05 Apr 2012

pparks1 said:

Unfortunately, you have discovered now why the use of imaging software has become so popular. The great news is that the programs are free and work well. The bad news is that you cannot take advantage of it now to get your old stuff back. But now that you are setting up again, you can use it going forward to prevent these problems from happening in the future.

Unfortunately things like imaging are too boring for the vendors or Microsoft to push. It's even worse in Windows 8. The imaging apps are hidden away and described as Windows 7 legacy backup. Ho Hum.