Windows 8 can't see installed programs

Hi everyone.
I have ran into an issue about Windows 8.1 and it's view on Program Files.
I have recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, keeping the personal files and all the programs and games in Program Files and Program Files (x86) were kept untouched.
90% of everything there works perfectly but Windows doesn't know they are installed and other 10% of programs that require some other program installed to work, can't realize it's there. But it is and it's working.

For instance, the game Battlefield 3 is there and when I try to run it, it notices me it can't start without Origin installed.
Ok, but Origin is installed and working. I start Origin then and try to run BF3 from there. But Origin can't see that BF3 is there either.
Lastly, going to the webpage for the game, I get noticed that I need to have Origin installed to be able to play.

And it's not just that game, same goes for every program in Program Files.
Are there any solutions to this, as I really don't feel like re-downloading 200 GB?

Hi Puzomor and welcome to Eight Forums,
This looks like a registry problem maybee you can try any of the registry cleaners and see what they can do.
Also try SFC /scannow command in cmd.
Hope that helps.

midou35000 said:

Hi Puzomor and welcome to Eight Forums,
This looks like a registry problem maybee you can try any of the registry cleaners and see what they can do.
Also try SFC /scannow command in cmd.
Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Thank you, i will try both solutions and post results.

Puzomor said:

midou35000 said:

Hi Puzomor and welcome to Eight Forums,
This looks like a registry problem maybee you can try any of the registry cleaners and see what they can do.
Also try SFC /scannow command in cmd.
Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Thank you, i will try both solutions and post results.

Click to expand...

Registry fixer found some issues, but most of them were just invalid shortcuts and irrelevant stuff like that.
SFC /scannow does this: Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Now, I have some old registry backups saved, but those are from win7. If I restore them, now that i have win8, how badly can I screw up my PC and what else can I do with those?

Do not restore a registry back up from Win 7 or you will have to factory restore your computer.

You may look at this:
All Installed Programs May Not Be Displayed in the Add/Remove Programs Tool

Nuccii said:

Do not restore a registry back up from Win 7 or you will have to factory restore your computer.

You may look at this:
All Installed Programs May Not Be Displayed in the Add/Remove Programs Tool

Click to expand...

The programs that were installed on windows 7 do not appear to be registered by registry, therefore it doesn't have it's folder in the registry. It's like it doesn't exist, and that's what I'm hoping to fix. The programs are working fine when run from their .exe in program files, and that's why I do not wish to re-download and re-install them.

In your original post: I have recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, keeping the personal files and all the programs and games in Program Files and Program Files (x86) were kept untouched.

How did you manage that?? When you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 you have to reinstall your 3rd party programs and personal data.

Nuccii said:

In your original post: I have recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, keeping the personal files and all the programs and games in Program Files and Program Files (x86) were kept untouched.

How did you manage that?? When you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 you have to reinstall your 3rd party programs and personal data.

Click to expand...

Here's a quick answer:
I have recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, keeping the personal files, and all the programs and games in Program Files and Program Files (x86) were kept untouched.
"Keep personal files" is an option that pops up when upgrading"

As for the solutions that didn't work for some reason:

Cleaning the registry won't solve the problem of missing registry entries.

SFC /scannow scans current Windows files and not the files needed for programs to work properly.

Editing The registry entries for programs that are missing from the registry does not seem very possible.

If there is no way of getting those registry entries back without re-downloading 80GB of programs at 400kb/s, then fine, I will just re-download the programs that already work.

If there is a way then I kindly ask for anyone who knows how to get them back to explain it here.

is the program listed in "programs and features" if so do show a repair option for those programs?