Programs That Are Not On The Root Drive

In my data partition, I found a folder called software and inside it are a lot of programs, which, in the meantime, have all been installed on the root drive. I realized I don't know how to get rid of these programs, because they do not show up in add/remove programs. I haven't tried any of them, but simply assume they are active. They are things like Firefox 3.6 (sweet!), CCleaner 2.19, old things, as you can see. Do they need to be uninstalled in order to delete them? If I simply delete them, will there be files hanging around all over the place in the registry?

When I installed them back then on the data partition, it was so that if anything happened to my C-Drive, I would still have all the programs installed. Over the years, I probably thought they were installation programs, but they are actually the installed programs. Now what do I do?

 

If they do not appear in 'Start > 'All programs' or in 'Control Panel > Programs and Features', or listed in an uninstaller such as Revo or IoBit (if you have any such program) then they are not installed are they. The ones not appearing there just delete them from that data drive.
If any are installed, you need to launch them to check what VERSION they are and if need be update them.

 

They are just installation files, the downloaded executables that actually install programs on your system. Unless you feel you may possibly have some future use for them they can simply be deleted. Nothing will be left behind.

 

You might want to store those programs on a CD data disk or an external hd or USB stick.
I do that just in case I want to install an old version of a program that I can not find any where else.

 

I also off load some of these type programs to cd / dvd as I've found that sometimes older copies are more to my liking than the newer versions. And some formally free programs roll into paid when bought out or otherwise decided by the owners to be paid versions. I keep copies of such in a 'After Rebuild' storage for use when disaster happens or I acquire another comp I want my fav programs on. Even some installed programs will work elsewhere later on. Any program you normally run you can right click and select ' open file location' to see if it actually goes to the files on your data partition. If so you need to figure on saving it.

 

Thank you. I think what I'm understanding (not sure if it's correct) is that when you install a program, changes are made to the registry to incorporate the new program and the registry is associated with the current operating system. When you do a clean install of the operating system, you necessarily remove the old registry and replace it with a new clean one. In that moment, those programs which were installed in a different part of the computer and were not affected by the reformat, will still have all their dll and sys files etc. in the non-reformatted partition, but will no longer have entries in the new registry.

I suppose if that's correct, they should not run if I tried to start them?

 

If they are, as most of us think, merely installation files then they will run but will also attempt to install. You may or may not want that. If they are, as you seem to believe, program executables then they won't run after a clean install to the OS partition for the reason you have given. The only exceptions would be any that you do not install and simply run from the executable.