New install Old software!?!?

OK, let's start this off right, I have no clue what I'm doing.

I have a HP DV7T-700 Quad laptop with NVidia 650GT GPU 750g SSHD Seagate drive. After 3 years of abuse I must of had some registry files get corrupted. I was unable to install 90% of any updates over the past 7 months, here's where I feel like a fool, I never noticed it wasn't getting the updates installed. When I finally realized it wasn't installing updates, about a month ago, I did the "Google" thing and found I wasn't the only one who had issues. So I did everything they said in in every article/thread I could find and nothing worked, well that's not true, it helped me install maybe 4 or the 20 updates that were hanging.

My last ditch effort to fix this was go through and write down each update that continued to fail, searched through the registry and found each one in several places (I'm guessing this is normal), then tried to delete part of the entry thinking that might allow the laptop to figure out the update wasn't installed correctly and would allow it to install. This did not work cause I was denied access, so I said screw it and decided on a fresh install (probably long over do anyways). I also got a new SSD for the OS so this should make things easy, or so I thought. After 3 days of installing the 200+ updates needed for a fresh install and several rounds of blue screens, most likely caused by installing newer drivers before the OS updates resulting in IRQ assignment conflicts, I know have a fresh Win7 Ultimate installation and none of the software I need for work, he data is easy enough to transfer, but the programs themselves I don't have all the disks to reinstall.

If you've made it this far your better than I am. So to the nitty gritty, is there a way I can migrate the software only from on older installation of windows (which still works, just won't update) to this fresh install. I know just copying the files won't be effective, for too many programs need the registry files associated with them to operate correctly, and how to move them is beyond my skill level, plus I think that would be so tedious. I'm sure there are specific software questions, but as a general rule is it possible?

Edit: I hope you like novels, I like to type!

A favorite of mine at one time http://www.oldversion.com/
I found this site when I discovered the newer versions of CloneDVD don't have the 'Close Tray' option for the Explorer menu.

That would work, but I actually meant if it was possible to take installed software from a working OS installation and transfer it to a fresh OS install. I think I realize this is still impossible, but was worth asking. Just means it's digging through 100's if not 1000's of disc's in no particular order, and then checking to see if I made back-up copies of installation software (I'm sure I did).

Ahh , I see. I have done that , but it is frequently a pain. Having to dig out files from the driver store , driver folder , program data , local , roaming , etc. , can take far more time than it's worth. Sometimes you can get enough from just the programs folder to get the program to start and then update it for all the rest of the functionality. That is why I keep a folder I named "installation files" and save the original install .exe for everything I install. I periodically go through and clean out older files , leaving the most recent ones. A tool like "key finder" or Magic Jelly Bean" can dig out product keys before you clear the old OS. That makes it easier to validate new installs of stuff you paid for already. Hope some of this helps !

Ultimately I wouldn't recommend it. I know it can be a pain, but make sure to take an image of your OS once you have it setup the way you want it/need it so you can revert sometime in the future if necessary.

I would have suggested taking an image (for a backup) of your old OS and then sysprepping it to remove extra hardware-related files/etc then taking an image of that and moving it over, but because of the issues you are already running into, it would turn into a garbage in garbage out situation most likely.

That's sort of what I thought he case would be, I've done all that before and I was hopin there might be some sort of software by now that would of made it easier. I know how much of pain it will be, even if I could transfer programs from a bad OS to a fresh one, I would still have to root through stuff to get the data I need related to work.

I've just recently started to do the ISO image thing and back up important files like emails and other documents the feds require me to keep. I still have the old Drive and nothing has been done to it, I can still make an image of it. the problem I am having with it is it stopped installing updates, most of which I'm sure are just to get me to upgrade to Win10 or something pointless like that. I had no issues with hardware or the functionality of the pc as a whole, I just figured since I was gonna breathe new life in the old hag with an SSD I would do a fresh install instead of bringing the corrupted registry files from an old installation.

Normally I have done like Alaric and just kept all the installation files and keys for everything and burned them to dvd, would back-up important things like my favorites and browser passwords (cause lets face it who wants to go back through and remember each of the passwords you use for however many websites you visit), but over the last 7 years I have gotten lazy, complacent, I mean it's not like the days of old when you really needed to do fresh installs of windows98SE every month if you worked from your computer or gamed a lot, lol.