If I back up program files, is there a program that will restore them to a new WinXP re-install registry with all the settings in tact ?

Thanks...

   No.  It is not really possible for a program to detect all of the places that another program has put entries in the registry in the past.
   If you just reinstall Windows to the same location and don't format the drive, your programs will all still be there and their entries should also still be in the registry.
   You could find a backup of the registry that was made before you had problems (look in the Restore Points).  If you restored that, you may not have to reinstall Windows.  WinRescue can restore just the registry part of the Restore Point if you can figure out how to get access to the Restore Points folders.
   When you reinstall Windows, Windows deletes the old Restore Points, so if you want to keep them, you need to move them to another folder before you reinstall Windows.  You can restore registry backups after you have reinstalled Windows.

Thanks -- that information is very useful and makes me a lot more at ease in re-installing Windows.

Ned

Ray,  Is that only true with XP, or will that also work with Windows 2000?  I've got some corrupted files somewhere, apparently mainly associated with IE and Windows update, and have been too lazy to do a complete reinstall, thinking I'd have to reload all the programs.  However, if I can get away with a simple reinstall of Windows, that would be great! (with a full back up first, of course)

With respect to your statement, "If you just reinstall Windows to the same location and don't format the drive, your programs will all still be there and their entries should also still be in the registry," I may be missing something here.  Does Windows actually try to place the reinstalled files in the same physical location on the drive as they were before, or does the reinstall just use unused space and the FAT simply points to the new location(s), thereby rendering the old files as unrecognized trash?  And doesn't the reinstall create a new registry, thereby either overwriting or essentially deleting the old registry settings?  Has all that been fixed in more modern versions of Windows? (I go way back to early DOS, so I remember just how bad things were compared to what we complain about now. )

Thanks,

C.R.

   As I remember it, that works all the way back to Win98.  As long as you are installing to the same location (the same Windows directory), it simply replaces the files and uses the registry that is there.
   Some forms of the installation of Windows will not do this.  These should say on the box something like, for new installations only.  If this is the case, when you run it, it will tell you that it cannot install to the existing directory and will make you select a new directory.  If that happens, just cancel and stop the installation.