Can Create A System Image Of Just Programs / Applications

I've been using computers ever since Windows 3.1 and '95 and I have been plagued with dozens upon dozens of hdd crashes and similar occurrences which forced me to reformat and reinstall all the programs I use (and have to search and find them again...). I have learned a lot since '95. One method of keeping my apps and media safer is by keeping them on a separate larger internal hdd and running my OS on a smaller ~400gb hard drive. I have just gotten into creating full system images with Acronis that fill up 3+ blu ray discs, which is ok if I'm only making one ever, but my documents and programs consist of more than half of that data. It would be nice to make one full system image right after I reformat my computer and install all device drivers I'll be using; my questions below are in regards to making images of the programs to allow very simple install later. Let me say this as well: I know of the extreme difficulty of taking a system image created on 'PC A' and using it on 'PC B'.Basically unless PC A and B the same brand and model something is bound to not work correctly due to driver issues and hardware incompatibility. Anyways, what I am interested in now is to get one of my computers installed with all the software and plugins I typically use and create a "system image" consisting of only my programs and the necessary files to have them run properly. I understand this may be unfeasible but I'd like to further my knowledge and hear from others their ideas to my problem. I say it may be unfeasible because, when installing a program, files are saved into many different directories, including various folders within "Users" and the hidden folder "ProgramData" (as well as possibly to the "Windows" folder and/or C: as well as the computer's registry).I feel this may work if I get every file that was created at installation time as well as run windows 7 on all of my computers that I'll be using this "software-only system image" on.Is there any software that will allow me to accomplish my goal or at least make my job easier?If this is possible and assuming I'll only be using 64-bit versions of Win7, will I run into problems between, say, Home Premium and Ultimate? Is the structure or layout of the OS different in the ways / directories it installs programs into?If the above fails or is impossible then.I was considering another idea but with more work for me.In school, both high school and college we had computer labs and every computer had the same programs installed and there were many programs (say 20 programs * 100 computers in the larger labs). Albeit the computers were the same make/model, lets forget that fact for the purpose of this question, as well as the fact that all the computers were networked together which may allow little tricks here and there... Forget those facts and here is my last question: Instead of just having an image of already installed programs would there be a way for me to somehow install, say, 50 programs without launching each one individually? I would be very surprised if a program like this didn't already exist for IT people yet. For example, in a law firm, if someone in the office gets a virus do they call in the IT guys and they 1) reformat the computer 2) install OS 3) reinstall all required software one after the next? Seems a bit time consuming, in my example 20 apps * 100 computers, I couldn't imagine installing the same programs 2000 times.