Swaganauticus :
So is there any way to reinstall Windows without losing some of my stuff? Sounds like a pretty major design flaw to me.
Depends on what you mean by 'stuff'.
Music/doc/video/etc ? Trivial. Save elsewhere and copy back.
Applications? Not so much. Parts of them actually become 'part' of the OS. Registry entries, and other locations that will get overwritten with a new OS.
Why is this? Well, back in the early Windows days, each application had its own .ini file. This specified all of its settings, where it's dependant files are located, etc. You could mostly copy an application elsewhere, and have it 'just work'.
This also mean huge duplication. Each application installed its own set of stuff. Stuff that could, and should be, shared.
A printer, perhaps. Everything would have its own print driver, for all your printers. Today....just reference the shared resource. Tell 'Windows' to Print, and let Windows handle the interchange. Rather than the browser, wod processor, image editor....all having its own printing application for ALL printers.
Now...should 'Windows' know everything there is to know about every possible application? Obviously not. There are millions.
Hence, reinstall the applications following a new OS install.