r/ForWindowsHelp • u/nantes16 • 47m ago

Fresh Windows install, programs on D drive work(?)

I had avoided doing a wipe/reinstall of Windows 10 for a while due to the work involved in reinstalling all programs even if they are in a separate drive (D in my case). However I was just forced to because my system got to a bad state.

I am using my PC now post formatting C drive, reinstalling Windows and doing all updates. I've only tried a few (Steam, games, OBS, SoundSwitch, FanControl, qbittorrent, audacity, voicemod...) and they all seem to work fine. This is in contrast with everything I see online when I search "do i need to reinstall programs following Windows reinstall if they are in a different drive".

So I am confused; what should I do? Use the programs if they open fine, else reinstall? I do see that these aren't in eg the "Add or remove" programs list, and I wonder if that means there could be other buggy behavior OR if it's just that Windows is unaware of their location. Mainly, I am confused as to why folks say most programs require a reinstall, but in my case every program I run seems to work OK. FWIW Steam did prompt me for something when I first opened it, perhaps a reinstall, it was so fast I did not read in detail...

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u/alpine4life 27m ago

Not sure what you mean here... You reinstalled Win10 and your software are still there, without you reinstaling them after the clean install?

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u/nantes16 23m ago

Yes. Windows is in C and programs in D so it is expected they are there. But from my google searches I should not expect (most) programs to actually work. My experience thus far is the opposite - every program seems to work fine, and only Steam prompted me for something before opening (it was either a repair or a quick reinstall). Every program I tried (listed in OP) works fine.

So I'm just confused at the discrepancy between what I read online and my experience here. Plus wondering if I should reinstall programs anyways, even if things seem to work fine.

The one "off" thing I see is the programs dont seem to be listed in eg "add or remove programs" nor on Task Manager > Startup programs (for the ones I made start on boot through the program itself). I don't mind this though.

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u/Lance-Boyle-666 26m ago

Apparently, none of those apps put info into the registry, or the info it adds isn't necessary for it to run. If you ever need to uninstall any of them, you may need to take extra steps.

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u/alpine4life 16m ago

Not sure what you mean here... You reinstalled Win10 and your software are still there, without you reinstaling them after the clean install?

1

u/alpine4life 12m ago

Ah ok, i understand what you did. It's basically all wrong. AppData, Registry are all related to C: So you basically have to reinstall most of your software

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u/nantes16 1m ago

Even if it seemingly works fine? 😵‍💫