Reinstalling programs from Time Machine.

Question

I want to do a clean out of my machine, as I've got quite a few unwanted programs installed and just stuff cluttering up my HD.
I currently have several TM Backups on an external disk, If I erase my machines HD and reinstall the OS will I then be able to reinstall the selected programs individually from the application folder of TM or will I need the original .dmg files?
Presumable I can also just reinstall the document folders I require individually as well?
ped.

Answer 1

Your best bet, by far, is to simply delete what you don't want.
If you erase everything, install OSX and then use +Setup Assistant+ to transfer some of your stuff from backups, you can omit some broad categories of things, but you can't "pick and choose" individual apps, or individual files in your home folders. See [Using Setup Assistant|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html].
If you erase everything, install OSX and create a user account, so you can do selective restores via the "Star Wars" display, that account may or may not be recognized as the one on your backups, so may not have permission to restore the files.
Even if it is, you can restore some apps successfully, (simple ones, that were just dropped in the Applications folder), but you may need to re-enter any purchase keys or serial numbers.
The more complex apps, that came with their own installers, put other files in other places, usually in your top-level /Library folder. If you don't know what and where those are, and restore them, too, the app won't work properly, if at all.
Worse, some install "helper" apps, too. Often those are named similar to the main app, but sometimes they have different names, and may actually be from a different maker. Of course, these apps may have other files of their own!
To work properly, all such apps may need to be reinstalled from their original discs.