Time Machine - Restoring Paid Programs

Hi, I've been wanting to restore my Mac back to factory settings and start fresh, and I was wondering if Time Machine will back up certain music and photo editing programs I bought, (Adobe Master Suite, Reason, etc) so I won't have to reinstall them and enter in all the serial numbers again? Or will I have to break out the install discs after I restore?

Time Machine will backup everything if you allow it to. However, some programs store their serial numbers or activation data in encrypted format. Those may or may not get restored and you might have to either reactivate the program or sometimes even reinstall.

Why do you want erase everything and start over? Are you having problems or difficulties with your machine? If everything is working OK, leave well enough alone. OS X is not Windows. Rarely, if ever does it have to be reinstalled.

Well, I bought my Mac used, and when it was mailed to me it was already up and running in the previous owner's name and some apps on the App Store won't update unless I have the previous owner's email password and it won't let me just delete those apps. I also can't log onto my iCloud because the previous owner had logged into his accounts and I let my fiancé log into his on his account, not knowing there was a limit on accounts per Mac. This is also my first time really exploring a Mac since grade school.

OK, glad you explained. I agree with you that an erase and reinstall should be done in your situation. However, you need to understand that any application that is already on the machine installed by the previous owner, is not legally yours unless he/she gave you the original disks and serial numbers.

Any serial numbers or activation processes will be lost if you erase and reinstall. Of course if you have the original media and serial numbers, then all you would have to do is reinstall. There is no guaranty that Time Machine (as I explained in my other reply) will retain the integrity of those apps after a restore. Also, Time Machine will restore the previous owner's account name and ID. That's something you probably don't want.

It is a great idea when purchasing a pre-owned machine to get the system discs and discs for any software offered with the computer. Then do a clean install, set yourself up as administrator and then install the commercial software.

Large suites, such as MS Office and Adobe, do not transfer or migrate well, invariably demanding the activation codes as chscag points out.

Thanks for the help I don't have the discs or serial numbers, unfortunately... which is why I haven't done anything yet.

If it was just one or two programs that I didn't have any use for, I wouldn't mind loosing them. But theres a handful of useful apps that I have the potential of using
(but I'm not exactly a wiz at music/film/photo editing, so I haven't really used them yet)

After calculating the prices of the apps, they come out to about $5,135. So paying $550 for the whole thing was way more than I had expected to find. I did ask for the serial numbers upon purchase, but he declined.

I respect the previous seller (on eBay) for including all those useful apps yet keeping the total price of the Mac down. So I'll deal with the little inconveniences instead of loosing what I originally chose this Mac for.