text: i reinstalled windows xp and also if all the programs are on the hd it doesn't see them. how to show them? i had to reinstall windows xp, all my previous programs are in their directories, but windows xp doesn't see them. how to make windows xp to recognise the programs? it's likely you will have to re-install all the programs again from scratch.  you can use the cd's that came with the programs and in a lot of cases you can go to the programs web page and download the drivers from their site.  don't forget to go to windows.com and run the update as most programs have new drivers.  when you re-install windows, the registry is cleaned out (good and bad)...each program has to "register" with windows before it runs the program.   hope that helped?