Here's the story: I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my system which the operating system was formerly vista basic.
Specs:
dell inspiron 1520
intel core 2 duo T7500 2.2 ghz
3.0 gb RAM
windows vista ultimate service pack1,  32 BIT
(legitimate copy of windows vista)
WEI: 3.5
_______
The problem: This basically made everything new. All of my old files went into this folder on my C drive called windows.old. There are certain things that I can no longer use anymore because they are like in this folder. These features originally came with dell like the ABILITY to scroll with that thing on the bottom and side of your mousepad, webcam features, speech recognition. For example, if i click on the .exe file for one of these softwares i get some error saying that the file cannot be opened. I have all of the files, but I don't know what to do with them =/ And because these files were pre-installed on dell, there are no installation files present.
Any help?

(Also I am new to the the forums, and am unsure as to what other information to include.)
Thanks!

Whenever you install or re-install an operating system it overwrites whatever files were on your machine...your programs will need to be re-installed.
The backup you have is for docs and settings and data files that Vista saved when Ultimate was installed.
You may be able to FIND some useful data there however you need to re-install any programs you had prior to on  that machine...

Clik Here  for Our Guide to what info is needed when posting and Welcome to the Forums ! !Thanks for the reply!
Is there a way to make certain softwares functional without installation files? Like I know all of the dll's and whatnot are still present in that one folder full of my old files from the original OS.
In short.....no.
Sorry.