How to keep certain applications when wiping iMac?

Reinstall SL? Confusing, since your product info indicates Leopard. If the iMac is running SL, there's no reason to reinstall. Just upgrade to Lion after making a bootable backup/clone of your current installation. That should preserve all apps and their registrations.

Michael Hemmings wrote:

Will re-installing it count as a separate installation on another computer?

Yes.

Michael Hemmings wrote:

Is there a way of returning to factory defaults but keeping selected apps?

Not for installer type apps or copy protected programs, only "drag and drop" self contained and "free of copy protection" apps then they have of course be copied off the soon to be erased volume just like users files.

For Logic and other copy protected programs, get a copy of the license key and talk to the developer(s) you can reinstall on the same machine again from the original source without burning one of your allotments.

What the developer will likey do is issue another license key and record it so it's verification when it "phones home"

All they want to do is make sure your not using it more that it's allotment.

Thanks for clarifying. Since I don't have any of those kinds of apps, never ran into the issue.