Curses, Foiled Again!

After almost two, trouble-free months, my computer went wonky again.  Tech support suspected a glitch in my operating system update and had me "refresh" my computer.  I noted that the description of "refresh" said that all my files would remain intact.  That appears to be true, except that all the software I had installed (word processor, spreadsheet, web browser, tax program, and various games) are gone.  Guess what I'm going to be doing (again!) this weekend!