Need help with comp recognizing games

[PROFESSORPAUL]

Hey, I just had a recent problem of my old computer burning out and breaking. So I went out, bought some new hardware, and put them into a computer with my old drives so I still had all my old games and old stuff. My computer works and everything's the same, but I have one problem. All my old games are not recognized. I mean, I can go into the actual folder where it's installed and start it up no problem, but when it autoruns or when I try to install patches, my new C drive can't detect where the game is installed and doesn't do anything. Even my old shortcuts on my desktop don't work.

Is there a way to make your computer recognize that you have games installed in your drives, or more specifically, old drives from an old computer? I went to my control panel and went to Add & Remove programs, and sure enough, only the stuff that's installed on my C drive is in there, and none of my games in my two other drives are on the list. My games are on my drives still, I just need my computer to recognize them.

[Emperor Dimitricus]

did you install a new c drive with a new windows installation? if thats the case, there wont be any registry entries for the games, but it will still let you play them with the exe.

[Beetlecat]

For the most part, there is no easy way to make your computer know that a game (or any software) is installed without creating or adjusting registry entries. What will typically break windows' knowledge of your installed software, and the desktop shortcuts, is that the path to the application has been changed.

It wasn't exactly clear from you question whether you had simply put your original hard disk (C) into a new computer, or have included it as a secondary drive. All files and folder locations can be exactly the same, but if a <C> is changed to <D>, it won't work. The registry entries likely still exist for your games, but they're pointing to the wrong place (just like the shortcuts).

Please clarify your new setup, so we can see about getting this fixed.

[PROFESSORPAUL]

Yea, on my old comp I ran XP Service Pack 1, and now I'm running Service Pack 2. I know it still lets me run the exe's, but is there no way to make the comp recognize that they're there completely? Cause without my C drive knowing I have games installed on my drives, I can't install patches, all of my shortcuts will never work, and I have to manually go into each folder just to start the game. Even worse some of the exe's dont even work anymore. I tried to start the exe from the game folder for this oen game and it wouldn't start.

I always thought there was a way to put the games back into the control panel or back into the registry.

[Emperor Dimitricus]

no there is no way to do that. and yes, that is another problem, only certain games will run using the exe. you will have to reinstall all of those games that dont run. oh and you dont have to always go into the folders, just put shortcuts onto the desktop

[PROFESSORPAUL]

I still have my D and H drives, which hold all of my games. I have a new C drive, and have an I drive which is my old C drive. My C and D drives are internal and my H and I drives are external (USB). I was thinking maybe if I start up my computer with my old login account (Administrator), it might get the old registry back. On my last computer I used Administrator to login, and now I'm using something different. But I copied my Administrator folder into my C drive just to get all my old stuff back like songs, programs, etc...