I have to reinstall windows, and need to create a backup of my hard drive. I'm looking for some specific backup software. Something that would let me restore start menu programs from the backup to my computer after the reinstall, without me having to reinstall them from CDs/DVD's or compressed files. Is there any program like this?

I've been told there isn't, but the reason I doubt this is I've used PC migration software which could transfer start menu programs from my old computer to my new one in this way. If that could do it, why couldn't they be restored from a backup this way as well.

Doing a clean reinstall of windows means that you need to reinstall any programs that you want to use.
As these normally mean a registry change simply restoring them from a backup is unlikely to work correctly.

Some programs can be restored in this manner, but not many.

So all told the is NO program that will function in the way you are describing..

Wrong, at least partially. I told you that I used a program that could- at least from one computer to another, if this can be done, why not from a backup?