How to reintroduce programs to start menu after reinstall?

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Nightfly85

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Jul 16, 2013
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In the near future (hopefully tomorrow) I'm going to be swapping out my AMD CPU/Mobo to Intel. I'm going to try and do a basic hot swap and see if the current installation survives but worst case scenario I'm expecting to have to fresh install the OS regardless.

Now the question I have is, if I install my Windows to the C: drive and that's all that lives on there, how can I get the programs that are installed on the D: drive to reappear back on my start menu "Programs" subsection and in the "Programs and Features" section of the control panel?

I'm hoping there's a way to restore these rather than having to reinstall all my programs or clutter my start menu/desktop with shortcuts.

Any help'd be appreciated!
 
Solution
USAFRet


Actually, you want a lot of your applications on the same drive as the OS. Especially if it is an SSD.
Browsers, AV, utilities, etc, etc. All on the OS (SSD) drive.
My current C SSD - 120GB Kingston. Currently holds Win 8.1Pro, and ALL applications, apart from games.
Approx 80GB used space, almost 3 years old..

With...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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If you need to reinstall the OS, you'll also need to reinstall your applications.
It is far more than just entries in teh Start menu.
 
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Nightfly85

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So even though I'm installing all my programs to the D: drive (i.e. Steam, Chrome etc) as I keep my C: only for my Windows install, there's no way to reintroduce these? When I've reinstalled in the past I've not needed to re-install the programs on the other drive and used shortcuts before just getting sick of it, un-installing and then reinstalling. I assumed there'd be a more elegant solution.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Some applications do not need a reinstall. Others do.
It is always safer to just reinstall.

When you install an application, the Start menu shortcut is but one tiny aspect. Dozens, or thousands, of Registry entries. And elsewhere.
 
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Nightfly85

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Ah, fair enough. Better safe than sorry I guess :)

So is there no real advantage then in splitting the OS on a separate drive as in case of an OS reinstall all the programs would need to be reinstalled anyway? And on that note, should I un-install my programs before I reinstall the OS as when the OS is reinstalled I can't uninstall the programs through the control panel as the entries won't be there?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Actually, you want a lot of your applications on the same drive as the OS. Especially if it is an SSD.
Browsers, AV, utilities, etc, etc. All on the OS (SSD) drive.
My current C SSD - 120GB Kingston. Currently holds Win 8.1Pro, and ALL applications, apart from games.
Approx 80GB used space, almost 3 years old..

With current OS, trying to keep that drive as "OS only" is a losing proposition.

And yes, you should Uninstall, and then reinstall on the OS drive. This prevents future weirdness.
 
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Nightfly85

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Cool, thanks for the advice! Well currently I have 2 SSDs C: and D: (60GB and 128 GB respectively) and just assumed it was safer to keep the OS to do its own thing on another driver other than some programs that I deem close to OS functionality (such as HWMonitor and Speedfan)
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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That 60GB SSD for your OS is the issue. IMHO, that is right on the edge of 'too small'.
I'd swap things around and have the OS (and applications) on the 128GB drive.
 
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Nightfly85

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It was an initial purchase when I first built my system and decided to add another drive to it when I was expanding. I was working under the assumption that putting a partition (in this case a physical one of two drives) would have offered a safer and easier way to backup/reinstall when needed by keeping my programs separate. I do have larger games on my 128GB drive too which I wouldn't want to lose the load time benefit of some of them and they wouldn't have much room to breathe on the 60GB drive.

 
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Nightfly85

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Looks like another upgrade is on the horizon! Good job SSD prices are plummeting these days

Thanks very much for your replies and patience on this though, I appreciate it!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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3 days ago, I got a Samsung 850EVO 250GB for $98. Today, same vendor (Amazon) it is $114.
 
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